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[Former-Member]

SUICIDE: LIFELINE WA RAPID RISE IN CALLS.
abc news online. com; Sep 5, 2016

Suicide: Lifeline WA taking more calls from people under financial stress due to changing economy. Lifeline counsellors took 55,000 calls from West Australians in 2015.

Each day in Western Australia, someone will take their own life. This year 7,000 West Australians will attempt to take their lives.

At the start of suicide prevention week, Lifeline WA chief executive Lorna MacGregor says the organisation is taking more calls than ever before.

"WA has the second highest suicide rate in Australia and I think most people are surprised to hear that," she said.

Lifeline took 55,000 calls from West Australians in crisis in 2015.

"Last year, 374 Western Australians took their own life, that's more than one a day," Ms MacGregor said.

Lifeline has declared Australia's increasing suicide rate a national emergency.

"Given that suicide is preventable, we think it isn't acceptable," Ms MacGregor said.

The group most at risk is men aged 25 to 44 and people with mental health issues.

With the state's changing economic conditions, Lifeline said they had seen more crisis calls from people suffering financial stress.

"While Western Australia has the second highest suicide rate in the country, sadly West Australians are less likely to call the 13 11 14 crisis line," Ms MacGregor said.

"One of the reasons, we believe, is that Western Australians are rugged individualists, they think they have to do it tough and think they have to do it on their own, of course they don't have to do that."

Don Rechichi has volunteered as a Lifeline support worker for the past year.

"You can get very, very confronting calls, where someone on the end of that line, their life is hanging on a shoestring, they've come to the end of the line, they see no other option other than to take their lives by suicide and so we talk to them," Mr Rechichi said.

He said Lifeline believed suicide was preventable, but more needed to be done to provide prevention and intervention and also a service to support people after they had attempted to take their life.

"You can see there's been over 2,000, maybe 2,500 calls in to Lifeline [nationally] in a day," Mr Rechichi said.

"And we can see sometimes that there can be maybe 200 calls that haven't been answered because we just don't have crisis support volunteers on the phone on that particular day.

"I have gone home thinking to myself that within those calls that we haven't answered, has anyone taken their life?

"If you're seriously thinking of taking your own life, don't be afraid to tell someone, ring Lifeline." Anyone.

Making the call 'changed my life'

Tiny Holly says he owes his life to the person who answered his call several years ago.

"I was in a real low place and I'd always heard of 13 11 14 but done nothing about it," he said.

"I thought it would always pass, but when I cried for about three or four hours that day it was enough to say maybe something's not quite right. So I made the call to Lifeline and it's probably changed my life from there.

"I felt like I was speaking to a family member that had all the care in the world. Their patience. I was still quite upset and in tears and it just made such a life-changing difference, it really did."

Mr Holly said his depression meant he still had good and bad days, but had learnt to manage the highs and the lows better.

"I remember the words 'hang in there', it was down to earth, and as I say, these days there's always light at the end of the tunnel, whether it be a small light, it's always there," he said.

Mr Holly said he had been to his friends for help, but they only saw his fun side.

"As an auctioneer, they saw the face that I put on for an auction and the laughter and the joy," he said.

"They didn't see me two or three hours driving to the sale in tears over nothing, what I thought was nothing. It was just the reassurance they gave me at Lifeline, that they would listen."

About 400 people are expected to take part in the Out of the Shadows walk in King's Park this weekend, for people affected by the suicide of a loved one.

"Every time a person suicides, research shows there are 135 impacted by that," Ms MacGregor said.

"So 135 people indicate that they feel significant loss and grief around the person who has suicided. So every year in Western Australia 50,000 people are impacted by suicide."

by PAMELA MEDLEN
ABC News online
MON SEP 05, 2016
ABC news online.com

[Appleblossom]

It really is a serious SOCIAL issue ... not just personal.

[Alone1]

It's actually a government issue because there is no places to go for decent health and mental health care because the physchiatrists do not bulk bill or medicare gap bill any more.
The average person can no longer access a good and grounded psychiatrist unless they can afford about $600+ per consult. Psychiatrists are extensively now for those who are well-off and can afford such costs.
The government only allows for "everyday people" to be placed into the catchment areas, therefore forcing you to attend the government hospitals based within a certain amount of kms to your postcode.
These catchment areas, the whole and complete government system and experience, is of NO help and offers no assistance, no future appointments, no care.
They do offer humiliation, disbelief, lack of understanding and care, and the chance at being locked up against your will if you attempt to seek assistance through there.
This IS THE MAIN REASON the suicide rate in WA has increased and continues to rise.
IT IS DUE TO LACK OF CARE, LACK OF ASSISTANCE, LACK OF AFFORDABILITY AND LACK OF BULK-BILLING PSYCHIATRISTS.
The government should expect more deaths, although it will not worry them seeing they are pushing for a country of young "high ability earners and investors" rather than acknowledging there ARE elderly, aging and everyday people still in existence.
We are not america, but due to the brown-nosing and inability to exist as an independant nation, we will always be the second america.
America has no care for it's homeless, elderly, aging or homeless, to name a few, and australia is closely following suit with it's lack of care for the same.
It's time to get a grip before many more die, but loss of what the government deems as a drain on their wanted and ideal country, as like america, seems to do no more than bring a smile to the face of those you have voted in to do the right thing by the country and its PEOPLE.