Government recommends three actions to prevent male suicide
The Australian Government has published its long-awaited National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2025-2035), which includes three recommended actions to prevent male suicide.
Male suicide continues to be the leading killer of Australian men under the age of 65, with men and boys accounting for 3 in 4 suicides.
While men are identified as one of the groups disproportionately impacted by suicide, the Government has chosen not to focus the ten-year Strategy on specific population groups. However, the Strategy does point out cases where it is considered important to address the needs of specific groups.
Download the Albanese Government's 2025-2035 National Suicide Prevention Strategy
The Strategy lists more than 100 recommended actions, with three of these actions specifically mentioning men or men’s services. They are:
Action 4.2a: Address loneliness and social exclusion in Australia
Under this action, the Strategy recommends that programs to build social connectedness and a sense of belonging, and improve relationships are implemented and evaluated. This includes funding community-based programs that focus on reducing loneliness among groups that experience high rates of social disconnection and exclusion, including men.
Action 6.2b: Build suicide prevention capability (in Men’s Sheds)
The Strategy recommends action that builds on the existing Distress Brief Support trials to improve the capability of services that are frequently in contact with people negatively impacted by social determinants to recognise and respond compassionately to signs of suicidal distress. Relevant service contexts include Men’s Sheds.
Action 7.3a: Appropriate and acceptable delivery of support
The strategy recommends a comprehensive review of men’s engagement with existing support options for people with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. It proposes that the findings of this review be used as the foundation for a co-design process to develop new models to better meet the needs of men.
The Strategy acknowledges that men are less likely to engage with services than women, because services are often not designed to meet men’s needs. It says that men report valuing non-clinical interventions that promote social interaction (for example, sports-based activities or Men’s Sheds), but states the effectiveness of these approaches for suicide prevention is yet to be established.
The Strategy makes the case that trialling service models that are tailored to men, building workforce knowledge of gender and masculinity constructs, and increasing capacity to apply this knowledge, is central to improving the effectiveness of suicide prevention supports available to men.
Why not focus on priority populations?
The decision not to focus on groups like men, who are disproportionately impacted by suicide, is explained in the Strategy as follows:
“[The] disproportionate rates of suicide are driven by disparities and inequities in social and economic circumstances, not inherent vulnerabilities. This Strategy is structured around these social and economic issues, rather than by population groups. This helps ensure a focus on addressing the key social and economic factors that give rise to disparities in the impacts of suicide, and that the Strategy supports an intersectional approach.”
In addition to the three actions that specifically mention men, there are at least six additional actions that propose a particular focus on groups disproportionately impacted by suicide (which includes men). They are:
Action 5.2f: Assist people with challenging life transitions
Provide universal access to postvention services to support people bereaved by suicide, including dedicated tailored supports for groups disproportionately impacted by suicide.
Action 6.2a Build suicide prevention capability
Promote uptake of suicide prevention training in the community, with tailored training and peer facilitators for populations disproportionately impacted by suicide.
Action 6.2b Build suicide prevention capability
Evaluate the work to expand Distress Brief Support trials to assess their effectiveness for groups disproportionately impacted by suicide.
Action12.2a: Build capability to contribute
Build equitable and inclusive processes that support the broadest range of people with lived and living experience to participate in government processes. Proactively facilitate representation from groups that are disproportionately impacted by suicide.
Action 13.3a: Enhance data for suicide prevention
Enhance evaluation of government-funded suicide prevention activities by requiring government-funded programs to demonstrate evaluation practices to receive continued funding. Evaluations should consider effectiveness (including for groups disproportionately impacted by suicide) and cost-effectiveness.
Action 13.4b: Improve the translation of evidence into practice
Continue to build on the National Mental Health Service Planning Framework and accompanying tool to support the planning of regional suicide prevention services. Ensure epidemiological estimates include the prevalence rates of the social determinants of suicide, consider groups that are disproportionately impacted by suicide, and cover suicidal thoughts, distress and behaviours.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide
The Strategy is intended to align with the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy published in December 2024, the two Strategies are described as sitting “side by side as mutually reinforcing scaffolding”.
In terms of male suicide prevention, neither of these Strategies appear to address the intersection between sex, gender and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. According to the most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, men and boys account for 3 in 4 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicides.
Do we need a dedicated Male Suicide Prevention Strategy?
The Australian Men’s Health Forum has previously called for a National Plan to Prevent Male Suicide, highlighting the fact that successive Governments have resisted calls to tailor and target suicide prevention in a gender inclusive way that acknowledges and address the differences between men and women.
In recent years there have been some notable developments at a policy level, with the Queensland Suicide Prevention Plan (2019-2029) and the Tasmanian Suicide Prevention Strategy (2023-2027) Implementation Plan One, including a specific focus on actions to tackle male suicide.
In terms of the new Strategy, the National Suicide Prevention Office has indicated it will “prepare supplementary resources in support of the Strategy, that explicitly explore how the Strategy is intended to improve outcomes for groups disproportionately impacted by suicide”. At the time of writing, it is not clear when or whether this approach will be applied to men and boys.
What happens next?
With a Federal election due to be held no later than May 2025, it is unlikely that any of the Strategy’s recommended actions will be implemented for some time. However, the Government does recommend that there should be regular monitoring of, and reporting on, the implementation of the Strategy.
Download the Albanese Government's 2025-2035 National Suicide Prevention Strategy
FURTHER INFORMATION
Government releases long awaited suicide prevention strategy (Suicide Prevention Australia)
National Suicide Prevention Strategy launched (Department of Health and Aged Care)
National Suicide Prevention Strategy (National Mental Health Commission)
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy (Department of Health and Aged Care)