New report shines a light on a complex mental health landscape

Jennifer Doggett
Jaelea Skehan
Wednesday, October 19, 2022

COVID-19, Alcohol, Indigenous health, Mental health, Suicide, LGBTQIA+

Introduction by Croakey: The Australian Bureau of Statistics today released its annual Causes of Death data report, showing that in 2021 the suicide rate remained almost unchanged from 2020, with a total of 3,144 lives lost to suicide across the country.

Dr Jaelea Skehan OAM is the Director of Everymind, a national institute dedicated to the prevention of mental ill-health and suicide, delivered through best practice programs, communication, policy responses and translational research.

Below she analyses the ABS report, and suggests three key strategies to reduce the suicide rate: more resourcing of the upstream monitoring of the drivers of suicide and poor mental health; learning from people with lived experience of suicidal distress; and better data collection and improved understanding about the impacts of suicide across a range of groups in our community, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people who identify as LGBTIQ+ and people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.

Jaelea Skehan writes:

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released the Causes of Death data for 2021, including official suicide data for Australia.

The data shows that the number of lived lost to suicide stayed relatively the same between 2020 and 2021, with 3,144 deaths registered in 2021 compared to 3,139 deaths in 2020. After dropping from a rate of 13.1 suicides per 100,000 people in 2019 to 12.1 in 2020, the rate came down again marginally to just 12.0 last year – the lowest recorded national rate since 2016.

The loss of 3,144 Australians to suicide in 2021 represents a heart-breaking loss for communities and families across our country. It is this loss, combined with the stories of hope and resilience from people with lived experience, that must fuel our ongoing and collective effort to reduce suicide in Australia.

Key points

Earlier today, Everymind, through the Mindframe program, hosted a briefing for media and the suicide prevention sector to present carefully interpreted and summarised data with the aim of making it easier for people to understand.

Some of the key points from this year’s data set include:

In 2021, there were 3,144 suicide deaths in Australia, with an age-standardised rate of 12.0 deaths per 100,000 population. The rate for 2021 is the lowest national suicide rate recorded since 2016.
The suicide rate for males decreased by 2.3 percent between 2020 and 2021.
The suicide rate for females increased by five percent between 2020 and 2021.
Young and middle-aged people are more likely to die by suicide, with 81.9 percent of people who died by suicide being under the age of 65.
Men aged over 85 years had the highest male age-specific suicide rate but accounted for the smallest proportion (3.2 percent) of male suicides.
Women aged 50-54 years had the highest female age-specific suicide rate and accounted for the highest proportion (9.9 percent) of female suicides. In 2020, this age group had the seventh highest rate of female suicides.
There were 219 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who died by suicide across Australia in 2021.
Using data from New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory, the age-standardised suicide rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 27.1 per 100,000.
Almost 90 percent of people who died by suicide had at least one risk factor reported. Mood disorders (including depression) were the most common risk factor for both males (36.2 percent) and females (41.6 percent), with suicidal ideation (24.6 percent), problems with spousal relationships (24.0 percent), acute alcohol use (20.6 percent) and personal history of self-harm (20.5 percent) all featuring.

Pandemic impact and other associated factors

Recorded during the second year of the pandemic, and in the same year that saw widespread catastrophic flooding up and down the east coast of Australia, the 2021 data released today continues to confound early concerns and predictions in the media that suicide rates would increase during this period.

Within the reported data, 81 people (down from 99 in 2020, and representing just 2.6 percent of all suicide deaths during 2021), had the COVID-19 pandemic mentioned in either a police, pathology or coronial finding report.

However, in none of these cases did the pandemic appear as an isolated risk factor. Each person had, on average, six risk factors.

This underlines the fact that suicide is a complex issue rarely preceded by a single event or condition.

It is also worth noting that Victoria, which experienced significant periods of COVID lockdown in 2021, recorded the nation’s lowest age-standardised suicide rate (10.1 per 100,000) and fewer suicides than in 2020.

None of this indicates that the pandemic has failed to impact Australians’ levels of distress.

Separate data collected as part of the AIHW’s National suicide and Self-Harm Monitoring System shows that distress, self-harm and the use of crisis and support organisations remained higher in 2021 than during pre-pandemic years.

Future focus

Accurate collection and analysis of data such as this ABS set is vital for us to understand trends, identify those who may need more support, direct funding where it is needed, and dismantle the remaining stigma that clings to this issue.

Long-term, and real-time, monitoring and proactive approaches that do not wait for distress to worsen are clearly needed and should continue to be a priority. While the annual Causes of Death data set is crucial in understanding suicide, enhanced upstream knowledge that can be acted upon early is also essential if we are to do better in preventing future suicide attempts and deaths.

In addition, we need to improve our data collection and understanding about the impacts of suicide across a range of groups in our community, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people who identify as LGBTIQ+ and people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.

Behind the numbers

Today as we cite the number of people who died by suicide to highlight the scale and impact of the issue, it is important to be reminded that this is only part of the overall picture. Behind each of those numbers is a person, a journey and a network of other people.

We also need to look beyond the statistics and ensure that we learn from those who have lived experience of suicide – particularly those who have experienced suicidal distress and suicidal thoughts, and from people who have lived through suicide attempts.

Further information

The team at Everymind works closely with both the ABS and the AIHW (which hosts the National Suicide and Self-Harm Monitoring System) to interpret and disseminate this data for the benefit of the sector and the broader community.

A full breakdown of the data, by age, gender and state, with trends over time is available at Life in Mind.

Visit Mindframe for guidelines and resources supporting safe reporting and communication about suicide data. A general summary of today’s data release, prepared by Mindframe is available here.