The number of Australian children committing suicide is relatively stable, but the amount of self-harm is increasing and, most alarmingly, the children involved are getting younger.
The 2014 Children’s Rights Report provided grim reading about the rates of self-harm and suicide among young people.
Previously unpublished coronial data from 2007 to 2012 revealed there were about 50 child suicides each year, while during the same period, 333 children and young people aged between four and 17 years died because of intentional self-harm.
Moreover, there had been a staggering 650 per cent increase in deaths from self-harm, when comparing 12 and 13-year-olds with 14 and 15-year-olds.
The national children’s commissioner, Megan Mitchell, said the trends were worrying, but just as alarming was the lack of evidence about what was driving self-harm and suicidal behaviours, and what programs were actually helping.
“This tells me we really need to be getting in a lot earlier to work with kids, to address any risk factors that might be present, and to build help-seeking a resilience in children,” Ms Mitchell said.
The report came after the suicide of a 10-year-old girl in Sydney’s inner west late last week left her family and school community reeling.
“Luckily the numbers are quite small and I think we need to remember that, and I think the suicide rate hasn’t actually gone up over the last decade or so for these age groups,” Ms Mitchell said.
“It has stayed steady though, so we’re not making inroads into it. And certainly the self-harming behaviour has absolutely increased, so we’re getting 50 to 60 hospitalised a week as a result of self-harm and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because not every child that self-harms will present to hospital and some studies estimate that it’s only about 10 per cent that end up in hospital, so I think we’ve got a real problem there.”
We don’t know what is effective: Graetz
On Monday the commission made public all 139 submissions from various organisations, individuals and services, including one from Beyond Blue.
“There’s so much we don’t know about what’s effective,” said Dr Brian Graetz, Beyond Blue’s deputy chief executive officer.
“For us, it’s pretty important that children, young people, learn skills around emotion regulation – so being able to manage emotions that are really difficult and dealing with the life ups and downs, whether it’s a breakup in a relationship, or a disappointment from school,” he said.
“There are the things that quite often young people, they’re not really well-equipped to cope with, and so a lot of our emphasis is on those programs that run in schools to support children develop these skill sets.”
Ms Mitchell said the public needed to remember that adolescence was a difficult time for some children.
“Some kids adapt better to that and we also know the brain is experiencing a second wave of rapid expansion,” she said.
“Emotions are intense – consequential thinking has not fully developed, emotional regulation is poor, impulse control is low.”
Ms Mitchell also said modern technologies may have thrown up another factor.
“Personally, I do think that while kids face the same kinds of pressures that they always have, I do think that the advent of digital technology can really amplify and intensify some of those pressures.”
Report recommends national research agenda
The Children’s Rights Report recommended the development of a national research agenda on children and young people who were self-harming or suiciding to work out which existing programs worked.
“This is across the spectrum of interventions from prevention programs to clinical treatments. This must be an absolute priority,” Ms Mitchell said.
The recommendation was backed by Dr Nick Kowalenko, chairman of the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Royal Australian College of Psychiatrists.
“It’s not just the kind of issue for healthcare systems, it’s a big issue in schools, it’s a big issue in the welfare sector, and it’s a big issue in the community generally,” he said.
“We need to conduct comprehensive assessments whenever we see kids that are self-harming.”
Aside from the statistics, Ms Mitchell said her report relied on real stories from children and young people.
“One of the more touching elements is that these are from children who have survived, and they’re adults now in the main,” she said.
“Now when they didn’t seek help it was because they were worried they’d be judged by others. They were shamed, they thought their parents or others would have an over-the top-reaction, and so they didn’t seek help and they continued self-harming.
“Now their clear advice is, see help-seeking as a strength. Make sure you’ve got a go-to person in your life that you can talk to.”
If you need immediate assistance or support, please contact:
- Lifeline 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue 1300 224 636
- Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
- Mensline 1300 78 99 78