Recent Griffith University research shows hospital emergency department staff are failing people who arrive at hospital showing suicidal signs, one of Australia's leading mental health experts said.
This comes as the latest statistics show more than twice as many people died from suicide – 3000 - than from car accidents in Australia in 2013 (1193).
Health Minister Cameron Dick will on Tuesday hear from a mother, Kerrie Keepa, who has lost four members of her family to suicide, on her plans to improve "suicide awareness" training for emergency department staff.
John Mendoza, the former chief executive of Australia's Mental Health Commission, now the director of a Brisbane mental health clinic, said recent Griffith University research proved this could be effective.
In an opinion piece written for Fairfax Media on ways to reduce suicide Professor Mendoza said the recent suicide research at Griffith University showed emergency department staff had a "lower impression" of people who presented to emergency departments than other patients.
"One of the most common themes was the failure of hospital ED staff to respond to the suicidal patient," Professor Mendoza writes today.
"Too often in those cases the suicidal person was treated poorly, sometimes dismissively, and the risk to their life afforded too little in the way of compassion, urgency or assertiveness in the response," he writes.
"Too often they were discharged without any care or any supports.
"A recent study by researchers at Griffith University showed that ED staff at a large Queensland hospital gave a lower priority to those patients experiencing suicidal thinking and those who presented after 'cutting'.
"The Queensland Coroner's court continues to report on a significant number of suicides following presentation to hospital EDs.
"For ED staff, suicide prevention must become core business. Proven programs have been developed internationally, and these need to be made mandatory for all ED staff."
Nine people will die from suicide every day in Australia, Professor John Mendoza said on Tuesday.
"The likely number of suicide deaths is over 3000," Professor Mendoza said.
"That means on any given day in Australia, between seven and nine adults will die by suicide," he said.
Professor Mendoza on Tuesday bluntly called for all staff at Queensland hospital emergency departments to be trained in suicide awareness.
"What we can say - based on the official numbers, not the likely numbers - is that suicide is the leading cause of death for people 15-44 years," he said.
"And that suicide now accounts for over 85,000 years of life lost, making it the leading cause of premature death in Australia," he said.
"That is more than all cancers, more than all heart disease."
Health Minister Cameron Dick will on Tuesday consider making changes to "suicide awareness" training of hospital emergency department staff as he considers changes to Queensland's mental health care.
Mother Kerrie Keepa told Fairfax Media she believes staff at Queensland's emergency departments should have a broader knowledge of suicidal awareness, as one way of reducing suicide numbers.
After Chris Keepa's suicide Ms Keepa launched a Facebook social media campaign – SOS Fast – to call for changes to the way suicide care is provided.
SOS Fast stands for Survivors of Suicide Fighting Against Suicide Toll.
Ms Keepa's broad campaign is to have additional "suicide awareness" training provided to the staff of Queensland's and Australian hospital emergency sections.
A spokesman for Mr Dick said the minister wanted to hear first-hand from Ms Keepa and Dr Mendoza.
"The concerns that Dr Mendoza and Ms Keepa have raised about the training of staff in emergency sections, are the types of things that the minister wants to hear," the spokesman said.
He said he could not comment on what would happen to their concerns.
Mr Dick issued a statement on Saturday that outlined a two-month consultation period for Queensland's draft Mental Health Bill.
"We owe it to Queenslanders with mental illness and those who interact with them to get this right," the statement reads.
"These draft laws that we've proposed will strengthen the rights of mental health consumers as well as giving more of a say to family and carers," he said.
"Nearly half of all Australians will experience a mental health disorder at some stage in their lives so it is important that laws keep pace with modern best practise and community expectations."
