Page 212 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2016
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(2) resolves to establish a select committee on youth suicide in the ACT;
(3) that the committee will be comprised of two members of the Government and two members of the Opposition, with proposed members to be nominated to the Speaker by 4pm this sitting day; and
(4) the committee report by the last sitting day of this term.
I stand today to speak to the motion on the notice paper in my name regarding the issue of mental health and young people here in Canberra, with particular concern regarding the issue of youth suicide. I have moved that the Assembly notes that according to the ABS latest data about causes of death, which is a little outdated now, from 2013, a third of young people aged 15 to 25 who died in the ACT in 2013 died as a result of suicide. In 2013 suicide was the leading cause of death of children between five and 17 years of age. Intentional self-harm is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in males. Thirty-seven persons died due to suicide in the ACT in 2013, which was a 54 per cent increase on the previous year.
There was a 13 per cent increase of persons aged 15 to 19 dying from suicide in Australia in 2013 compared to 2012. Between 2011 and 2013 there were more deaths by suicide in the ACT than there were transport deaths, intentional self-harm being the leading cause of death among Australian children and young people aged 15 to 24 years. As at November 2014 one child under 18 years of age took their own life every week and 18,227 children and young people were hospitalised in Australia for intentional self-harm over the last five years.
Between 50 and 60 children every week are admitted to hospital for self-harming incidents in Australia and there has been a 650 per cent increase in deaths from self-harm, when comparing 12 and 13-year olds with 14 and 15-year olds, between 2007 and 2012. And I am asking that we establish a select committee comprising members of the government and the opposition to look into this matter.
We need to learn a great new skill as a society. When I was a young person at school we learned, in response to fire, the three-word response “stop, drop and roll” to teach kids how to respond to being on fire. But if someone is suffering from life-threatening or potentially life-threatening mental distress or the beginnings of such a situation, what do we do? How do we notice or find out? How then do we respond? We have a lot to learn regarding mental health.
We really are only the first generation, in a way, to speak openly about mental health, and mental health with regard to children is something that I think most people are not overly across. My vision is that eventually we will be in a situation where we are able to get out ahead of crisis—a mental health cleanout for younger people or learning how to notice the early onset of mental health concerns.
As a community, in many ways only those of us who have been either directly affected or very closely involved with young people in crisis, as I have been with kids in crisis especially, know what to do. Those who have not been involved in that do not have a lot of information about how to deal with the situation or how to even
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