Government spending of almost $1 billion on suicide prevention is failing to achieve its objectives and the outcomes are not being monitored.<\/p>\n
The Australian National Audit Office has released findings critical of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing\u2019s development and monitoring of suicide prevention measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour to five years after several national agreements, objectives to reduce suicide have not been achieved,\u201d the audit found.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no framework to support measuring and monitoring the impact of the Australian government\u2019s suicide prevention investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were more than 3300 suicide deaths in 2024, and it is the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44 years.<\/p>\n
The suicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is more than double the rate for non-Indigenous Australians and is increasing.<\/p>\n
Youth mental health expert Patrick McGorry said the findings showed \u201cgovernments need to lead more strongly on this\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s put our efforts into major programs that are likely to work; let\u2019s fund a system of health care that effectively treats people who are at maximum risk,\u201d he told AAP.<\/p>\n
He called for the creation of a national statutory suicide prevention authority with \u201creally powerful tools to actually control the funding and invest in coherent programs\u201d.<\/p>\n
The federal government committed to addressing suicide through two national agreements \u2013 Closing the Gap in 2020 and the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cDHDA did not fully support these commitments through robust policy development, including in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, or effective performance monitoring,\u201d the audit found.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile new suicide prevention measures were implemented, DHDA has not established arrangements to determine whether outcomes are being achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black Dog Institute\u2019s First Nations strategy director Clinton Schultz said policies and programs developed without clear roles, strong collaboration and culturally informed leadership risked \u201cmissing the mark for the communities they are intended to support\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout genuine buy-in and active partnership from governments and the relevant departments, opportunity risks being lost,\u201d Associate Professor Schultz told AAP.<\/p>\n
Elders, community leaders and community members had deep knowledge about what worked in their communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnsuring that this knowledge informs policy, program design and evaluation is essential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since 2022, the department has administered 41 suicide prevention measures with government funding of more than $990 million.<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s development and monitoring of suicide prevention measures was only \u201cpartly effective\u201d, and policy advice was \u201cnot fully robust\u201d, the audit found.<\/p>\n
The audit recommends the department finalise an agreement with the National Suicide Prevention Office to ensure clear roles and responsibilities, including in developing and providing advice to government on suicide prevention policy.<\/p>\n
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government spending of almost $1 billion on suicide prevention is failing to achieve its objectives and the outcomes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-525776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}