NSW Health takes action on male suicide prevention
The NSW Government has released a report on Men’s Mental Health while also committing grants of up to $50,000 for community organisations to deliver targeted initiatives supporting men’s mental health and suicide prevention.
Applications for grants close on Sunday, 15 December, 2024.
The report was released on International Men’s Day 2024 [Tuesday 19 November] and reflects key insights and strategies discussed at a Forum held on 5 August 2024 at NSW Parliament attended by a wide group of organisations committed to improving men’s and boys’ health, including the Australian Men’s Health Forum, represented by CEO Glen Poole.
Published by the NSW Ministry of Health led by Rose Jackson, MLC, Minister for Mental Health, Men’s Mental Health: A Focus on Suicide Prevention, was a collaborative effort between the NSW Government and the Movember Institute of Men’s Health led by Global Director, Professor Simon Rice.
“By addressing the underlying drivers of distress, we can focus on key points of vulnerability and bolster protective factors to prevent men from reaching crisis,” she said.
“We’re working to develop suicide prevention legislation to create accountability and strengthen collaboration across our suicide prevention efforts in NSW.”
The Forum was attended by 84 participants across 61 mental health and suicide prevention organisations.
Participants reviewed current data on male suicide, confirming that 78% of deaths by suicide in NSW last year (2023) were male. This is consistent with national figures where two-thirds of all deaths by suicide are male. Suicide remains the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15-44. In 2023, 730 men in NSW lost their lives to suicide, or two men a day. “Each one of these deaths was preventable,” said Simon Rice.
The Forum heard that drivers of distress and social determinants of health that caused male suicide included relationship breakdown, harmful gambling, economic instability, harms of alcohol and other drugs, housing insecurity, chronic pain and health conditions, domestic, family and sexual violence, discrimination and stigma and social isolation.
Details are contained within the report.
The Forum heard that the suicide rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in NSW between 2018 and 2022 was 34.8 per 100,000 population, compared to 16.1 for non-Indigenous men in Australia. Connection to culture, Country and spirituality played a crucial role as a protective factor against suicide for Aboriginal people.
“Suicide prevention programs that focus on strengthening connection to culture among Aboriginal people have further been found to be effective in reducing incidence of suicide and self-harm,” it was reported.
Participants at the Forum noted that diversity of identities with lived experience needed to be included in co-design of policies and services that seek to support men. A high value was placed on informal and non-clinical approaches to supporting men provided by peer workers.
Recommendations made my attendees at the Forum included:
- Strengthening the peer workforce to support men’s mental health, reduce stigma and increase help-seeking behaviour.
- Invest in grassroots local community-led initiatives.
- Fund community-controlled organisations that are set up to support diverse men.
- Enhance interventions that reduce loneliness and social isolation among men.
- Encourage existing NSW Government-funded service providers to review their practices to ensure they are culturally safe and accessible for diverse men.
- Support the provision of evidence-informed early intervention and prevention approaches in schools that promote positive masculinities, role models, social and emotional wellbeing, and early mental health literacy among boys and men.
- Expand access to support services for men outside of clinical settings, such as sporting clubs.
- Review mental health and suicide prevention services through a male-gendered lens to identify barriers to help-seeing.
- Support a whole-of-government approach to suicide prevention that seeks to break down silos and strengthen cross-government responses addressing the social determinants of health that lead to suicide.
- Ensure polices, programs and services are co-designed with input from men who have lived experience of mental ill-health, suicide, and those who care for them.
The Forum was told part of NSW’s Government’s commitment to drive down suicide rates among men included allocation of $400,000 as part of a grants program for community organisations to deliver grassroot, targeted initiatives, with up to $50,000 available per organisation for the purpose of supporting men’s mental health and suicide prevention.
“Introducing suicide prevention legislation is a commitment of the NSW Government,” the Forum heard.
“The drivers of distress that can lead to suicide extend beyond mental ill-health and require action from all areas of government to meaningfully drive down suicide rates. Legislation is one of many tools the government will use to strengthen NSW’s whole of government approach to suicide prevention.
“The legislation will focus on reducing suicide among priority groups disproportionately impacted by suicide, including men.”