WGAR News: Calls for greater action to prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide: University News, University of Western Australia Media Statement

Newsletter date: 6 September 2015

Contents:

* Media Statement: University News, University of Western Australia: Calls for greater action to prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide [featuring Prof Pat Dudgeon, Prof Tom Calma, Adele Cox - a Bunuba Gija woman from the Kimberley & Gerry Georgatos]

* News Analysis: Cowra Community News: Indigenous suicide needs action now - academic [featuring Prof Tom Calma]

* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: "It is not like me to cry…" - no more lies, our children should not see suicide as the solution

* WGAR Background to Suicide and Self-harm in First Nations Communities

* Crisis Support - Talk to Someone - 24-hours/day 7-days/week:
Lifeline - Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention: 13 11 14 https://www.lifeline.org.au/Get-Help/
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467 https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/
Beyond Blue - Talk it through with us: 1300 22 4636 http://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support

WGAR News postings on Indymedia Australia: https://indymedia.org.au/newswire
WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

- Media Statement

University News, University of Western Australia: Calls for greater action to prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide
[featuring Prof Pat Dudgeon, Prof Tom Calma, Adele Cox - a Bunuba Gija woman from the Kimberley & Gerry Georgatos]
http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201509037936/research/calls-greater-action-pr...
3 Sep 15: "A leading researcher in the field of Indigenous Mental Health at The University of Western Australia has used the approach of World Suicide Prevention Day to call for united action to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide rates, which remain among the highest in the world.
Professor Pat Dudgeon, who with University of Canberra Chancellor Professor Tom Calma heads up the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP) based at UWA, said suicide rates among the group are double that of non-Indigenous people, accounting for one in 19 deaths.
"This is a national crisis and strong and immediate action is needed, such as a national inquiry," Professor Dudgeon said.
"However, an inquiry or royal commission should not pause or delay initiatives that are already in place, or are about to be put in place."
Professor Calma said that by the mid-1980s, 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody prompted a Royal Commission and that the current Indigenous suicides should prompt similar attention.
"While some attention is being paid by governments, more needs to be done to address the determinants that contribute to the psychological stressors that afflict Indigenous society," he said. ... "

World Suicide Prevention Day http://wspd.org.au/ is on Thursday 10 September. It is also RUOK? Day in Australia.

- News Analysis

Cowra Community News: Indigenous suicide needs action now - academic
[featuring Prof Tom Calma]
http://www.cowracommunitynews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=10091&id=16
"IT’S not us, it’s you. That’s the message from indigenous service providers to the federal Government, says University of Canberra Chancellor and Indigenous leader Tom Calma. As joint head of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP), Professor Calma is urging the government to develop a multi-party platform to end decades of limited progress for indigenous affairs, particularly around high suicide rates. Professor Calma says the government has been treading water on indigenous affairs, and that grassroots organisations "getting steam up" and seeing results are then "cut off at the knees", Sydney media report. ... "

- Analysis / Opinion

The Stringer: "It is not like me to cry…" - no more lies, our children should not see suicide as the solution
http://thestringer.com.au/it-is-not-like-me-to-cry-no-more-lies-our-chil...
30 Aug 15: " ... If you are an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in this nation and aged 15 to 35 years, one in three deaths in this age group will be registered as a suicide. It is this age group’s leading cause of death. This is an abomination, moral and otherwise, an obvious indictment of our governments. This tragic statistic should galvanise the nation – our governments – into comprehensive responses. Suicide is a humanitarian crisis among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples however ever so little is being done by one government after another. In many ways our governments are making it worse, ... " By Gerry Georgatos, a suicide prevention researcher with various national and other projects, also a community consultant with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP)

- Background

WGAR Background to Suicide and Self-harm in First Nations Communities
https://indymedia.org.au/2014/12/24/wgar-background-to-suicide-and-self-...
(last updated: 18 August 2015)

- Crisis Support - Talk to Someone - 24-hours/day 7-days/week:

Emergency:
For immediate assistance when life may be in danger
Call 000
https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/emergency

Lifeline's 24/7 hotline
13 11 14
Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention services
https://www.lifeline.org.au/Get-Help/

Suicide Call Back Service
1300 659 467
Twenty-four hours a day seven days a week
The Suicide Call Back Service provides free nationwide professional telephone and online counselling for anyone affected by suicide.
https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

Beyond Blue
1300 22 4636
Depression. Anxiety.
Talk it through with us, day or night
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support

Useful national contact numbers - Suicide Prevention Crisis Contacts
http://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Suicide_Pr...

Mens Line
1300 78 99 78
MensLine Australia is a professional telephone and online support and information service for Australian men
http://www.mensline.org.au/

Kids Help Line
1800 55 1800
aged 5 - 25 yrs
http://www.kidshelp.com.au/

- - -

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

About WGAR News:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news

Subscription to 'WGAR News' is free.

'WGAR News' monitors the media, including alternative media, focusing on:

* The Freedom Summit's National Freedom Movement;
* the Australian Federal government intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities;
* Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), [and Northern Territory (NT)?];
* Treaties with Aboriginal Sovereign Nations of Australia;
* the Aboriginal sovereignty movement and the Aboriginal tent embassies;
* Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody;
* Aboriginal land rights and mining;
* Suicide and self-harm in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities;
* Removal of Aboriginal children and the continuing Stolen Generation;
* Aboriginal peoples and the impact of the Australian Federal Budget;
* Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing;
* other Aboriginal rights issues; and
* upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia.

'WGAR News' gives priority to grassroots Aboriginal voices and grassroots voices in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples' rights.

The role of 'WGAR News' is to facilitate the voices of others, and as such, 'WGAR News' rarely writes its own articles.

'WGAR News' publishes information and opinions from a wide range of sources.
These opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of WGAR.

The e-newsletters include media releases, opinion pieces, news items, audio, videos and events.

Subscribers can expect to receive about 5-6 e-newsletters each week.

To subscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "subscribe WGAR News" in the message header.

To unsubscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and include the words "unsubscribe WGAR News" in the message header.

'WGAR News' postings on Indymedia Australia: https://indymedia.org.au/newswire

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)