Contrary to some community fears, the Covid-19 pandemic has not seen a rise in suicides in either Victoria or New South Wales.
The first report from the NSW health ministry’s “suicide monitoring system” shows that 673 people from the state took their own life in the first nine months of the year. This compares with 672 for the same period last year.
“While every death by suicide is a tragedy, we need to underline that there has not been an overall spike in numbers in a year that has delivered so many challenges,” said the NSW mental health minister, Bronnie Taylor.
The state government is spending $87m over three years on suicide prevention initiatives, including the new system, which will send up-to-date data to health and support services so they can respond appropriately.
In August an investigation from Victoria’s coroners court showed that 466 Victorians had died by suicide in 2020, compared with 468 people in the same period last year.
The data is perhaps counterintuitive, as many feared Covid-19 would lead to a rise in self-harm, owing to worsening health and economic situations.
Nieves Murray, the chief executive of Suicide Prevention Australia, warned in September that the mental health of Australians could worsen.
“International research shows as economies go down, suicide rates go up, and Australia has just entered its worst recession in nearly a century,” Murray said.
“The longer Covid-19 and its economic and social impacts run, the bigger the risk of a hidden ‘third wave’ of suicide deaths not recorded in the official virus figures.”
According to the NSW data, those fears have yet to materialise, which Murray said could be attributed to government “protective measures”.
“These include the NSW government’s significant investment in scaling up mental health and suicide prevention services, coupled with the commonwealth government’s support for jobkeeper and jobseeker,” she said.
Murray welcomed the new reporting system, saying it would “provide our policymakers with more information to determine what works and what needs to change in suicide prevention”.
Some 3,000 Australians take their own lives each year, with three times as many males killing themselves as females, and two times as many Indigenous Australians as non-Indigenous.
Suicide Prevention Australia’s first annual report lists employment, social isolation and relationship breakdown as the chief drivers behind suicide attempts.
• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
