Leaving You: A Cultural History of Suicide
From ABC Radio National's All in the Mind program:

In 1938 historian Lisa Lieberman's grandfather, the son of an Austrian Rabbi, killed himself. It's a mystery that's long haunted her and one which sent her rummaging into the historical archives of self destruction. From Socrates to Sylvia Plath, post-revolutionary France to Auschwitz - suicide has been seen as both a personal and a political act. But Lieberman provocatively argues that modern medicine has stripped it bare of meaning and reason, and diminished individual responsibility for the decision to die. She joins Natasha Mitchell to share her unease...and historical insights.

Bipolar Disorder – Treating the Rollercoaster
This recent story from All in the Mind on ABC radio looks at treatment for bipolar disorder.

Manic depression or bipolar disorder is most famous for its extreme highs. In the throws of mania many people don’t sleep, spend huge sums, and live life larger and faster than ever. The condition has traditionally been thought to be unresponsive to psychotherapy and Lithium, discovered by an Australian and toxic in overdose, has long been the mainstay of treatment. But the picture is changing - and psychotherapy is making a revival. Neil Cole, ex Victorian MP joins Natasha Mitchell along with leading researchers at the recent International Bipolar conference.

The upcoming edition of All in the Mind on Saturday 21 February loks at the cultural history of suicide. It can be heard at 1.30pm on Radio National. The transcript will be available by the following Thursday when it will be added to the Blog.

Link between Depression and Heart Disease in Post-menopausal Women.
This article discusses a new study published in the latest edition of Archives of Internal Medicine. The study involved over 90 000 women in the United States, over a 4 year period. The abstract can be accessed via the link above. MCSP staff will be able to access the fulltext, but other readers should contact their library for access.

A media statement from the authors can be accessed here.

Full citation:
Wassertheil-Smoller S, Shumaker S, Ockene J, Talavera GA, Greenland P, Cochrane B, Robbins J, Aragaki A, Dunbar-Jacob J.
Depression and cardiovascular sequelae in postmenopausal women: The Women's Health Initiative (WHI). Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004 Feb 9;164(3):289-98

If suicide is a public health problem, what are we doing to prevent it?
This article appears in the January 2004 edition of the American Journal of Public Health. The link gives access to the abstract. MCSP staff can contact Tracy to access the fulltext. Other readers should contact their local library.

Full citation:
Knox, KL, Conwell, Y & Caine, ED 2004, 'If Suicide Is a Public Health Problem, What Are We Doing to Prevent It?' American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 37-45.

Suicide warning on child drugs
The West Australian has this as the front page story. Back in November 2003 the blog provided links to the US FDA Public Health Advisory about this issue. Click here to go to the entry.

Youth Unemployment in Australia: a contextual, governmental and organisational perspective.

"Young jobless males were nearly nine times more likely to take their own lives than their peers who were working or studying.

And the Smith Family study into youth unemployment calculates the cost of lost earnings and social security benefits for young people who did not complete Year 12 at $2.6 billion a year. "(From The Australian 28 January 2004)

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More Smith Family publications available here.

Tracking Tragedy : NSW Mental Health Sentinel Events Review Committee, First Report December 2003

The [NSW Sentinel Events Review] committee was established in May 2002 by the NSW Government to independently review and report on morbidity and mortality issues associated with the care of people with mental illness.

"The Committee looked at a sample of 35 inpatient suicides occurring over the past five years and eight homicides perpetrated by patients of mental health services between 1999 and 2002, in order to analyse systemic factors that may have contributed to these events.

"It found that mental health services in general do a very effective job at managing people with severe mental illness and that suicides and homicides were relatively rare events when compared to the numbers receiving care from mental health services.

Directory of Western Australian Community Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies
This directory has just been released by The Western Australian Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies (WANADA). Copies are available from WANADA. Click here for contact details.

Education Queensland's Suicide Prevention Website
This site from Education Queensland provides resources for teachers suitable both for use in the classroom and for professional development. It also has resources suitable for parents.

"The website has been established to assist Education Queensland personnel to access appropriate information concerning suicide, suicidal ideation and self harm with intent to suicide of young people.

Sections of the site are specifically designed for use by mental health personnel working with young people in schools (eg. Guidance Officers).

The site includes information on professional development, strategies to support young people at risk, schools role in prevention, postvention, critical incidents and a range of other information.

This site is an initiative of Education Queensland under Reducing Suicide: The Queensland Government Suicide Prevention Strategy 2003 – 2008."

(Thanks Bron)

Firearm related deaths in Australia 1991-2001
A new publication from the Australian Institute of Criminilogy:

An examination of firearm related deaths in Australia between 1991 and 2001 found a 47 per cent decrease in numbers, with a fall in the number of suicides accounting for the largest part of that decrease. Nine out of 10 firearm related deaths involved males. Compared to firearm related suicides and accidents where less than 10 per cent involved the death of a female, a higher proportion of homicides involved a female victim (33%). Persons under the age of 15 years were least likely to die as a result of a firearm related injury. Males and females who suffered a fatal firearms injury tended to follow a similar age distribution, with persons aged between 24 and 34 years accounting for the largest number of firearm related deaths. There appears to be a shift in age related risk between 1991 and 2001. In 1991, males aged between 15 and 24 years had the highest risk of firearm related fatal injury (rate of 9.5%), whereas in 2001 males aged 65 years and older had the highest risk (rate of 4.9%). The majority of firearm related deaths were committed with a hunting rifle, although there has been an increase in the use of handguns

SIEC Alert - Suicide among gay, lesbian bisexual or transgender youth
The lastest SIEC alert from the Centre for Suicide Prevention in Canada.

WAAMH Advocacy Training Workshop
Expressions of interest are being sought for the Advocacy Training Workshop to be held on Friday 6 February 2004, for 18-20 mental health consumers and carers. Limited assistance towards travel costs for attendees will be available as follows:

• $10 for metro-based participants


• Up to $50 for country participants.

Refreshments and lunch will be provided on the day. If you would like an opportunity to register your attendance at this workshop, please complete the application form and send it back to WAAMH by 20 January 2004.

Welcome to 2004

WA Psychiatric Rehabilitation Symposium 19-20 February 2004

The WA Psychiatric Rehabilitation Symposium - Recovery: A New Way of Being, will be held at the Department of Health, 189 Royal Street, East Perth on the 19th and 20th of February 2004. Videoconferencing is available for rural and remote sites.
The symposium is free, but places are limited and registrations must be received by Wednesday 4 February 2004.

Registration forms available on the website.

Reveiw of mental Health Services in Australia for 2003-2008

In April 2003, the Mental Health Council of Australia launched its national review of mental health services in Australia: “Out of Hospital, Out of Mind!”. The report highlighted the obvious deficiencies in care but also presented community priorities for further action. A key proposal was increased accountability. To date, we have insufficient data from government agencies about what really happens in mental health at local, regional and state/ territory levels. Consequently, the Mental Health Council of Australia, with academic support from the Brain & Mind Research Institute, is undertaking a state-by-state review of services in 2003. Our goal is to produce a report in each state/ territory to underpin urgent reform in your local area.

The study is being conducted by Professor Ian Hickie, Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Director, Brain & Mind Research Institute, The University of Sydney; and, Dr Grace Groom, Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Council of Australia.

If you wish to participate in the survey, it can be accessed at http://www.mhca.com.au/survey/.

Childhood and Adolescent Predictors of Major Depression in the Transition to Adulthood
In this new research the authors conclude that "our findings suggest clear markers [for major depression during the transition to adulthood] apparent in childhood and adolescence, presenting opportunity to those working with and treating this population."

The full abstract is available via the link above, and you may have access. If not, contact your organisation's library or your local public library. MCSP members can contact Tracy to access the fulltext.

Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour
Link to the table of contents of Volume 33 No 4

Issue 4 has arrived and MCSP staff can contact Tracy to access it. Other readers should contact their local library.

Risk of suicide and related adverse outcomes after exposure to a suicide prevention programme in the US Air Force: cohort study

This new article in the British Medical Journal (v 327, 7428, pp 1376) looks at the efficacy of a suicide prevention program in the US Airforce, and makes observations about how there results can be extrapolated to the wider community.

Latest ABS data on suicide

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its latest data on deaths by suicide in Australia. The report covers data for deaths recorded up to 2002. It should be noted that "[a]ll suicide data in this publication are based on year of registration", rather than the actual year of death and must have been ruled as suicide by the coroner.

Schizophrenia: early detection study

This story from ABC radio discusses new research that uses a faulty sense of smell to the predict the onset of schizophrenia. The research was done by a team at the Unversity of Melbourne. The research was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. You can access the abstract here, but may need to contact your library to access the full article.

Australian Alcohol Indicators, 1990-2001: Patterns of alcohol use and related harms for Australian states and territories

"This report presents health, road safety, industry and survey data to describe trends in risky alcohol use and serious alcohol-related harms for all Australian states and territories. It has been guided by principles set out in the World Health Organization’s International Guide for Monitoring Alcohol Consumption and Related Harm (WHO, 2000).

Trends in alcohol-caused deaths and hospitalisations for all states and territories have not previously been reported using consistent and comparable methods. A comparison between levels of risky alcohol use reported in the 1998 and 2001 National Drug Strategy Household (NDSH) surveys is also presented for the first time.

The present report builds on and updates five earlier Statistical Bulletins from the National Alcohol Indicators Project (NAIP) concerning alcohol-caused deaths and hospitalisations, road crashes, alcohol-related violence and levels and patterns of drinking in Australia."

The latest edition of the Kids Helpline newsletter is now available. It includes articles on:

• Parental Separation - Implications for boys' help-seeking


• Online Counselling - Responding to young people's feedback


• Enhancing More Young People's Lives Through Peer Skills


• Protecting Children From Abuse - It is everybody's business and much more

Upcoming Events....
East Metropolitan Youth Suicide Prevention Network
Yorgum Aboriginal Counselling Service
Darrell Henry, Psychologist and Counsellor with Yorgum Aboriginal Counselling Service will share his experience of the impact of suicide on family, friends and community from a personal and professional perspective.
When: Tuesday 2nd December 2003
Where: Classroom B WASON Bldg.
151 Wellington Street
PERTH WA 6000
Time: 9- 10.30 presentation
10.30 – 11.00am Morning tea and networking
RSVP: Thursday 27th November
to Michaela on 9224 1339
or email – michaela.vardaro@health.wa.gov.au

Doodling away the blues - 10/11/2003
This story from ABC Science looks at the effectiveness of doodling as an alternative to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. The research is being undertake by a group at the University of Technology, Sydney. More information can be accessed here.

Identity formation, youth suicide and First Nations
The Culture and Congnition Lab at the University of Victoria (Canada) has a collection of publications available on the web. Some of these relate to the the issue of identity and suicide on indigenous youth in Canada. Some very interesting reading.

Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services in Australia 2001-02: Report on the National Minimum Data Set
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a new report looking at drug and alcohol treatment services in Australia.

"Statistics in the report cover 121,000 treatment episodes across 505 agencies, focusing on clients using publicly funded treatment services, the types of drug problems for which treatment is sought, and the types of treatment they received. The report is part of the monitoring and evaluation components of the Australian Government's National Drug Strategy.

Two-thirds of alcohol and other drug treatment episodes involved male clients and most treatment episodes (61%) were for clients aged between 20 and 39 years of age.

Counselling was the most common form of main treatment received by clients (39% of treatment episodes), followed by withdrawal management (detoxification) (19%), assessment only (15%) and information and education only (10%)."

FDA Public Health Advisory - Reports of Suicidality in Pediatric Patients Being Treated with Antidepressant Medications for Major Depressive Disorder
This bulletin from the US Food and Drug Administration discusses concerns about the suicidality of patients being treated with certain anti-depressants. The FDA also have a Talk Paper and FAQ about Paxil (known as Aropax in Australia).

The World Today on ABC radio ran a story on Aropax in August.

Have your say about the WA Health System ….

"The Health Consumers' Council of WA is conducting a statewide community consultation during November 2003 as a part of the current health reform project. The Health Consumers' Council is an independent organisation that acts as the community voice on health.

The consultation will give you the chance to share some personal stories about the WA health system and focus on some of the key issues that are currently under review by the Health Reform Committee, like:

• How can the pathways between primary, secondary & tertiary care be made easier for patients?


• Should tertiary hospitals be ‘centres of excellence’ and stop unnecessary duplication?


• How should resources be allocated?"

See the website for more information.

Sprituality and Suicide Prevention
Following on from the SPA conference this year ABC radio has run a series of highlighting some of the papers presented at the conference.
At the Edge of the Abyss intereviews David Tacey and a number of others.

"Where does spirituality fit among the range of factors that might protect people who are feeling suicidal? What are the possibilities and risks of according spirituality some therapeutic value for those on the edge of the abyss of self-destruction? Can a person be deeply spiritual and still suicidal?"

Spirituality and Suicide Prevention
Further material from the Suicide Prevention Australia conference, including papers and links from the ABC religion web site The Sacred Site.

Mental Health Behind Bars
A recent report from ABC radio.

"A new groundbreaking study of the mental health of NSW prison inmates paints a very bleak picture indeed. But what comes first, the mental illness or the crime? This week on All in the Mind – what’s happening in the minds of people behind bars and how are their mental health needs being met?"

Access to the report: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/areas/corrections/docs/mental_illness_among_nsw_prisoners_2003.pdf