Church's key role in preventing suicide

Religious leaders say churches should be promoting awareness of one of Australia's most difficult issues - the prevalence of depression and suicide. Source: AdelaideNow

CHURCHES have an important role to play in assisting those affected by suicide and depression, Australian religious leaders say.

The Uniting Church SA's solidarity and justice officer, the Rev Sarah Williamson, said churches should promote awareness of what she?described as one of Australia's most significant cultural issues.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' latest Causes of Death report, released last week, states there were 2361 deaths by suicide in Australia in 2010 - an increase of 480 deaths from 2007.

Ms Williamson said the church's Suicide - It's No Secret campaign, now in its second year, aimed to promote discussion about suicide prevention and awareness, particularly in Australia's rural and indigenous communities.

"With myself and our moderator both being from a rural area, we had just buried too many people from suicide and really wanted to try to make a significant difference in how people approach the issue of suicide, with the view that suicide is a difficult issue to talk about," she said.

"We wanted to create a campaign that would encourage conversation and destigmatise the issues around it so we could potentially save lives."

She said mishandling of families of suicide victims in the past had contributed to the shame associated with it, but churches were now better educated about how to deal with such trauma.

Greater mental health support for rural residents was needed and indigenous communities were suffering the most, she said.

"I suspect we're going to learn a lot more in the future about indigenous suicide rates because they are higher than anything," she said.

"The best way to go is to upskill locals - if we don't have psychologists in rural areas, the best we can do is teach neighbours how to look after neighbours."

Salvation Army Hope for Life liaison officer Hennie Watts said churches must do all they can to promote discussion about suicide prevention.

The Salvation Army has a free training program - QPR Suicide Prevention - available on its website.

For information about suicide prevention contact Lifeline on 13?11?14 or SANE Helpline on 1800?18?SANE (7263)

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