Researchers in mental health are working with colleagues at the Victorian Coroners Court to refine and evaluate a register of deaths by suicide in the state in an effort to identify risk factors for suicide, and to develop effective prevention measures.
It makes big headlines when news breaks that a celebrity has taken their own life, and most people at least know someone who knows someone whose life has been touched by suicide: but as a society it’s something we know little about, and talk about even less.
“Conservatively, there are over 2000 suicides in Australia annually, over a quarter of which occur in Victoria,” says Dr Georgina Sutherland, who is Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Mental Health (CMH) at the University of Melbourne.
“Statistics show that suicide is – probably surprisingly to many – the leading cause of death for males under the age of 45 years, of females aged less than 35 years, and the fifteenth leading cause of death overall.”