I thank the parliament for the opportunity to discuss this difficult and challenging matter of juvenile depression and youth suicide. As a parent it is an issue that I feel strongly about, and as a politician I feel it is my responsibility to say something about youth suicide because as policy and decision makers we have the capacity and the responsibility to do something about it.
Depression is a leading cause of ill health amongst young Australians, with juvenile depression often cited as a major contributing factor in suicide attempts. It is the third largest killer of young Australians, and in the last 30 years it has been on a steady increase, with a worrying 300 per cent increase in the suicide rate of young men. The World Health Organisation's Global burden of disease study predicts that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of death and disease worldwide. This is a worrying prognosis given the current trends here in Australia.
World Health Organisation comparative figures for youth suicide and self-inflicted injury have Australia second only to New Zealand amongst OECD countries. Australia has a rate of 23.1 per 100,000 for males and 6.1 per 100,000 people for females. Coming from a southern European background, I noted that some of the lowest rates of youth suicide are in southern European nations. Comparing some of these figures with our own rates for male and female youth suicides, we see that, for males and females respectively, the figures are: in Portugal, 3.7 and 0.8; in Italy, 7.3 and 1.6; in Greece, 5.6 and 0.8; and, finally, in France, 12.8 and 4.2. Those figures are, arguably, attributable to the nature of the family in those societies, with strong family ties and the power and value of the extended family providing support structures and alternative avenues of communication for youth generally but in particular for those at risk.
From the mid-nineties, the state and federal governments legislated for programs to alleviate this crisis. Recognition of this issue has now permeated all levels of our community, from the government down to the grassroots. Today, organisations from the Scouts to Rotary and other non-government organisations such as Here for Life are doing their bit to help in the fight against depression and youth suicide. In fact, a few weeks ago I met up with Andrew Kay and Terry Stuart from the Here for Life organisation, which deals daily with youth depression and suicide. I can tell you that these people are doing a tremendous job in their extensive daily contact with youth at risk.
There are some experts and professionals who believe that bringing youth suicide into the public arena runs the risk of drawing too much attention to it—glamorising it, perhaps—or giving kids ideas and encouraging copycat syndrome, or just causing a general desensitisation to the issue. I understand the basis of these concerns, but I believe that to not place this serious issue in the public arena runs the risk of closing off precious avenues of communication with our young people, because in this fight against youth suicide communication is vital. We need to speak to our children and educate them about depression and distress, no matter how difficult or morbid the issue may seem to us.
A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study from the United States shows that where these education awareness programs are in place youth suicide has dropped. The centre for adolescent research also encourages discussion in classrooms on mental health and wellbeing issues along with the discussion of youth suicide. I understand that about 85 per cent of schools in America have youth suicide programs built into the curriculum. This is an example we need to seriously consider for Australian schools—within the context of general health, depression, bullying and other issues—because schools and the peer group are a key to tackling this issue.
It is important that we discuss these issues today because young people want us to, as attested by a recent Mission Australia survey which showed that depression is a high preoccupation amongst our young people. They certainly want to talk about it. In the same way as we concentrate on teaching children to read and write in their early years, so too do we, as they enter the challenging years of adolescence, need to teach them life skills—in particular, how to deal with adversity. Twenty years ago sex education was considered radical and controversial, with fears that if we talked about sex in schools then kids would have sex and girls would get pregnant. Experience has shown the contrary to be true. It is the same with suicide: we need to acknowledge it is an issue and deal with it at all levels—in particular, in schools.
More importantly, if we do address depression and anxiety, we know that recovery is possible. Evidence suggests this. Over the past three years youth suicide as a cause of death amongst 15- to 24-year-olds has dropped. This is a figure that the Here for Life organisation attributes to increased awareness and to education programs. It is these programs that need further expansion, but we need a whole-of-government approach at both the state and the national levels to tackle this issue and save our young people from depression and self-harm.
Statistics will never carry the pain felt by victims and families of young people lost to depression and suicide, but they do assist us to see through the fog of popular misconceptions relating to mental health and youth depression. Statistics prevent us from being lulled into false sense of security. One misconception is that most young people who commit or attempt suicide are clinically diagnosed with a mental illness with visible signs. Only one-quarter of those young people who take their life are actually said to be suffering from a diagnosed mental illness; the other three-quarters are considered normal young people.
Another fact is that 95 per cent of all youth suicide victims do display telltale signs: they leave a note, make comments to peers or family or begin to give away their possessions. How many parents who have lost their children utter the devastating words, `I did not know' or, `If only we knew'? Youth suicide in satellite and regional centres continues to increase. Some outer suburban and regional centres are considered hot spots, in particular for bullying and depression amongst young residents. The Dianella Community Health Service in Broadmeadows in my own electorate deals with such hot spots, where school bullying, isolation and depression form a potent mix in growing suburbs such as Sunbury and Craigieburn on Melbourne's outer edge.
Depression is not a new concept—it is part of human nature—but its increase is a concern. Similarly, youth suicide is also not new and is a part of life, albeit a destructive one. To believe otherwise is to be naive. You would be surprised how many kids consider suicide when they are feeling rejected or angry with the world and, because young people do not always understand the finality of death, they play out their fantasies. All it takes is a split second and it could all be over, sadly, without them ever really meaning to go that far.
Indigenous suicide rates in 15- to 24-year-olds in Australia are amongst the worst in the world. The rate of male and female youth suicides amongst our Indigenous community is 108 and 18 per 100,000 for male and females respectively. The same rate amongst young people in the general population is 27 for males and 6 for females per 100,000. A disturbing story told to me recently referred to a problem in the Tiwi Islands, where cages are placed around power poles to combat young males attempting suicide as a form of emotional blackmail to win over a girl's affections or in similar circumstances. Males are seemingly unable to deal with relationships in a healthy manner and are vulnerable to significant self-esteem problems.
As a result, some Here for Life programs target males in particular. Their Life's a Ball program brings professional sporting heroes into the classrooms. It uses young male sporting heroes to guide boys into healthy relationships and to improve their self-esteem. It is an innovative way to reach out to young men in order to teach them better life skills. In fact, it is almost a preventative cutting edge. There is a strong view, however, that the mix of government funding support is wrong and that funding is too top-heavy, focusing too much on research and academic surveys rather than on more practical and effective on-the-ground support for young people. We need to review these funding priorities to ensure money is put where it can help the most.
Our children rely on us. The decisions we make will determine how they develop their talents, their dreams and their aspirations. Therefore, let us not turn a deaf ear to their fears and concerns. Instead, let us ask ourselves some fundamental questions about young people today. What do young people aspire to today? Do they view the world as their oyster? Do they feel that they can do anything because they are young and have their entire life ahead of them? Are they coping with the fast-changing society around them?
Today's approach in this parliament to the issue of juvenile depression and youth suicide is an opportunity to show the public that both sides of politics can work together to connect the dots. This leads me to my final point: an overall approach by government must involve the issue of youth suicide being considered across all portfolios, not just the current youth affairs portfolio. When we decide our health, education, family, recreational, social welfare and even industrial relations and immigration policy objectives and initiatives, we should be conscious of how those policies, budgets and programs will impact on the hopes, the aspirations and the opportunities we give to our young people. They are after all—and we say this often—our most precious resource, and we need to treat them with greater care and give them a greater priority than I believe we are doing at the present moment.
