SIX people die everyday from suicide across Australia.
It is a terrible tally that Ken Meldrum wants stopped.
Mr Meldrum, who chairs the Redlands Coast Suicide Network Support group, is helping to set up a suicide prevention and wellbeing day on Saturday, November 17.
The event is being hosted at Raby Bay’s foreshore along Masthead Drive from about 10am to about 2pm to coincide with International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day.
The day’s theme is: Embracing the Spirit of Loved Ones, Past and Present.
Mr Meldrum said support services aimed at helping people to deal with suicide and prevention groups were invited to contact him about manning stalls.
Kayaking, walking, stand-up paddling, music and more is planned, as is a meeting of motorbike riders in the Black Dog ride group.
Suicide claims more than 2000 lives every year across Australia.
Mr Meldrum said the loss was something preventable, blaming a weakening of society’s pillars rather than an individual’s mental health.
He said events planned for November 17 were about raising awareness about suicide and its prevention.
“It is not a mental health issue, it is a society issue,” he said.
“We need to work together to reduce the rate.”
Mr Meldrum said men were more vulnerable to suicide but women presented more frequently to hospital emergency departments with suicidal ideations.
He said of the six people who died across Australia everyday from suicide, at least four were men.
“Men die, women cry,” he said.
Mr Meldrum said he was alarmed at the growing incidents of depression and suicide across different age groups, saying more people were becoming vulnerable.
He said elderly men going into aged care, aged 85 and over, and men who were retiring in their 60s, were becoming at-risk groups.
Shockingly, so too were children, aged six to ten.
However, those most vulnerable to suicide continued to be those aged between 15 to 45 years across both genders.
”It is a major issue,” Mr Meldrum said.
Prospective suicide support services and prevention groups can contact Mr Meldrum about the prevention and wellness day on November 17 via Ken.Meldrum@health.qld.gov.au.
If you or someone you know is in need of emotional or mental health support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
