Fed: Pooled efforts reduce Aboriginal suicides, conference told

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2000
Fed: Pooled efforts reduce Aboriginal suicides, conference told

A suicide prevention conference in Melbourne this weekend has heard a small north Queensland
Aboriginal community has found a concerted local effort can reduce youth suicide.

The conference was told that Yarrabah, a coastal community of about 3,000 people south
of Cairns, had shown pooled resources could be more effective than imported experts and
numerous small programs.

MERCY BAIRD, of the Aboriginal Coordinating Council in far north Queensland, told the
gathering there'd been no suicides in Yarrabah since a community effort began there in
1996.

Before that, at least one young Aboriginal man had killed himself every year for the
previous 10 years.

Ms BAIRD said people within a small community were best placed to know who faced risks
such as relationship problems, problems with drugs or alcohol, unemployment and financial
stress.

She says Queensland's Aboriginal suicide rate is still high: in the years between 1990
and 1997 18 women and 137 men committed suicide.

AAP RTV sjg/er/sub/wz

KEYWORD: SUICIDE (MELBOURNE)

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.