What is happening or not happening in Suicide Prevention and/or have Tasmanians totally lost sight of the things that matter most?
Tasmanians, and seemingly Launcestonians, have become an incredibly argumentative lot. Whilst debate is healthy, community feeling lately on issues such as the Pulp Mill and forestry have in my view taken on unnecessarily hysterical, personal and divisive undertones that I think will ultimately be detrimental to us all.But there are some things that deserve to generate real anger and our apathy to suicide prevention is one of them.
For a start I'm as mad as hell that I live in a society that apparently cares more about the inanimate than its human members. Do we really care more about trees than the fact that we have the second highest suicide rate in this country after the Northern Territory? Surely the prevalence of this epidemic and tragic loss of human potential should get people out into the streets, but much like poverty no one cares unless it affects them personally?
At this point I should say that it is something that has affected me personally through the loss of my brother, so I do care and care deeply. But my brother died in another State and a long time ago now in what is generally assumed to have been less sophisticated and well informed times. It is something that I've always preferred to keep private and deal with in my own way. But in the last few years I've been reawakened to its continued prevalence and the fact that help and education is apparently no better in Tasmania in 2007 than it was in Queensland in 1989.
That prompted me to post a submission to a Tasmanian Parliamentary enquiry into Suicide Prevention Strategies on this Blog in August 2005. Incredibly, despite a death toll well in excess of the road fatality rate, that Report has still not been completed and released.
I was prompted to post again in December 2006 when the State Government's Suicide Prevention Committee announced an independent and extensive community consultation into suicide and prevention measures. Again, I asked what was the point of the Parliamentary enquiry if we were again to enter another protracted round of consultations.
Now seven months on Assoc Professor Des Graham has announced a consultation schedule and online survey. To be honest they look fine, but when are we going to see action?
I'd really love to see more noise about this and less name calling over Gunns and the Pulp Mill. How about it Launceston? Whilst we argue about whether the sun will rise again if the Pulp Mill is built, for some of our neighbours the sun will genuinely never shine again.
posted by Alan Melton @ 11:21 pm
1 Comments:
The alarming suicide rate is some how continuing to slip under the radar unnoticed. It is not something that people tend to care about unless as you said, have experienced its repercussions.
However surely you agree that the democratic system (love it or hate it) needs to upholding in all instances. (Including the Pulp mill). Now avoiding that line of topic, could the seeming lack of interest from within political circles have something to do with the private funding of Political Parties.
Personally, the current suicide stats worry me no end. Finding ways forward (I feel) will require a shift within the public. It may require people (including governments) to look, think and act outside themselves, (the power of 'self', possibly being one of the driving force in the Pulp Mill debate) and discover a real sense of empathy, for those physically or mentally marginalised within our communities. But then again I could be barking up the wrong tree...
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