Newcastle-based suicide prevention expert Shayne Connell has welcomed the Minns government's plan to create a new law to "drive down suicide rates in NSW". Login or signup to continue reading The government announced on Sunday that it was working on suicide prevention legislation to be introduced into parliament next year. The law was aimed at driving "a cultural shift within government".
While suicide prevention had historically fallen under the health portfolio, action to "reduce death by suicide" would become a "collective responsibility". Mr Connell said the legislation sought to make sure "every government department considers the suicide prevention impacts of their decisions". "It's a step to preventing suicide and promoting life," he said.
The new law is aimed at preventing the government from making decisions that lead to suicides. A specific global example was the Vessel in New York, a 45-metre high climbable sculpture from which numerous people had taken their lives. It is due to reopen later this year with new safety features.
A local example was fencing erected in the early 2000s to stop people taking their lives from Mooney Mooney Bridge. NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said another focus would be "factors that exacerbate suicidal distress ", such as financial insecurity, unstable housing and social isolation. She said it was "not always the case that mental ill-health is the primary driver of distress leading to suicide".
The discussion paper said 49 per cent of people who die by suicide "do not have contact with health services in their last year of life". Consultation began this month and will continue until August 18, led by Suicide Prevention Australia and First Nations Collective Consulting. Ms Jackson said it was an "important process that would ensure every part of the NSW government accepts its role in suicide prevention".
"We recognise that preventing lives lost to suicide is not just a health issue but a societal one," Ms Jackson said. "I encourage people to engage with this consultation process with openness and honesty. We want our suicide prevention legislation to be more than a piece of paper.
" The Newcastle Herald revealed in March that the Hunter New England health district recorded the most suicides in NSW over a decade. The district recorded 1331 suicides from 2012 to 2021. Regional and rural areas had the highest suicide rates per 100,000 people among the state's 14 health districts in 2021.
The NSW government has released a discussion paper outlining "key considerations" for the new legislation. These included methods to ensure that "the public sector workforce has the capability and capacity to interact with people in distress". Better sharing of data was needed to "understand rates of suicide or suicide-related behaviours".
The government could do more to consider "suicide impact in decision-making to reduce the risk of potential failures of public administration causing distress". It said the legislation would "clearly articulate the roles and responsibilities of government agencies and hold them accountable" for suicide prevention initiatives. The legislation would be "informed by people who have personally grappled with suicidal distress" and those "bereaved by suicide".
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