With October being Mental Health Month I decided to look at Australia's health 2020 available on the Australian Government's site - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). When I waved my cursor over reports and data Australia's Health 2020: data insights, caught my eye with 2020 being the year we all say that we'll never forget. Being a Librarian I thought I must order the hard copy book for the library so that we can have all this data on hand for future reference.
Australia's health 2020: in brief - a short, visual report summarising key findings and concepts looked like a good read for now. It's available in PDF so an easy.
I wanted to look at mental health related statistics and this is what smacked me in the face.
Suicide was the leading cause of death among 15-44 year old Australians in 2016-18. People with mental illness need to know that they are not alone with self reporting data showing that 1 in 5 Australian have had a mental or behavioural condition in 2017-18. Help is out there!
Suicide rates among Indigenous Australians were almost double that of non-indigenous peoples with 23.7 per 100,000 people compared with 12.3 per 100,000 people.
Suicidal thoughts? While data are limited, the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing shows that at some point in their lives, 1 in 8 (13%) Australians aged 16–85 had serious thoughts about taking their own life, 1 in 25 (4.0%) made a suicide plan and1 in 33 (3.3%) had attempted suicide. This is equivalent to over 2.1 million Australians having thought about taking their own life, over 600,000 making a suicide plan and over 500,000 making a suicide attempt during their lifetime.
If you or someone you know needs advice or support, these services can help:
Lifeline 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
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