Fending off black dog

Building community capacity is a key part of suicide prevention, says MARK DAVIS

Two big black dogs lie metres from our table when I meet expoliceman Mark Davis at Fish Frenzy on the Hobart waterfront to talk about suicide prevention. Their presence seems apt, having for centuries been a metaphor for depression.

Mark, of Westbury, is in Hobart to attend the Wesley LifeForce Suicide Prevention Conference this week. On Tuesday, he shared his personal story at the conference’s memorial service for Tasmanians bereaved by suicide. Focusing on suicide-specific aspects of grief he offered solace and reassurance to those left to experience the devastation.

The former federal policeman knows all about the black dog. He was suicidal when he left the force in the 1980s deemed totally and permanently incapacitated, suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

This year he was recognised by the Mental Health Council of Tasmania for his outstanding contribution to suicide prevention in the past five years, mostly through his work as a 20-hour-per-week volunteer.

One of his main roles is to provide peer support for organisations including Beyond Blue. The peer workforce, paid and unpaid, is a relatively recent response. Peer workers interact with people who are either at risk of, have attempted, or have been touched by suicide.

“We use our own personal experiences as a basis to assist,” he says.

Mark’s big vision is for Tasmania to be suicide-free in 20 years. “It’s an aspirational goal, however aspiring to things is beneficial,” he says. “It makes one try one’s hardest.”

Two years ago, the state’s suicide rate was 15.6 per 100,000 people, higher than the national rate of 12.6.

Mark thinks we need to up our response, given the magnitude of the problem. Last year, 3046 people officially died by suicide, compared with 1136 people who lost their lives on Australian roads.

“The amount of effort spent on [reducing] the road toll is enormous, but there is not the same depth of penetration for suicide prevention,” he says.

The causes of suicide are complex and so is the required response.

“The reasons for perhaps half are related to diagnosed mental health conditions and nearly half are from other factors, such as personal crises involving everything from housing to gambling, alcohol, relationship breakdown, you name it,” he says..

“It needs to be tackled in many different areas, which will hopefully jigsaw together to create a positive effect over time.”

And he says the hospital emergency response approach needs streamlining. “We need more services for people presenting in emergency departments with suicidal conditions, so that they are attended to more promptly and in an alternative stream to those with urgent physical needs,” he says.

Mark believes Tasmania’s shortage of affordable psychologists and psychiatrists leaves many sufferers, including some of those just released from hospital, with a dangerously low-level of care and interaction.

Perhaps tele-health could help meet some of that need, he suggests, calling for more federal funding to roll out remote access for Tasmanians to mental health professionals.

He also thinks Tasmanians would benefit from new support centres in less clinical environments, pointing to the success of the Safe Haven Cafe at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital as a good example.

On Tasmania’s East Cost, a mobile coffee van The Safe Place Cafe now visits communities each fortnight to provide coffee, resources and sympathetic ears. A ustralian males are three times more likely than females to die by suicide, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing a 30 per cent increase in male suicide in the past decade.

Mark says one reason men are more prone is that they are less likely to seek help.

“And this makes them the hardest group to reach,” he says.

“There is a lot of stigma to overcome and part of it is stigma within oneself [that can lead to denial]. One of the things that held me back from seeking help was the thought that ‘this isn’t me’, ‘I’m not the sort of person who does this’.”

There are positive signs of change, though. “Men are becoming more educated about looking after themselves and organisations that are predominantly male are [stepping up] their education.”

And a Federal Government National Suicide Prevention Trial is testing different approaches. Its three Tasmanian sites are using the Black Dog Institute’s LifeSpan model, which focuses on building community capacity to better support people facing a suicide crisis. Find out more https://www.primaryhealthtas.com.au/suicide-prevention-trial-tasmania/

Mark says learning how to talk to people at risk of suicide is something we can all do to help. Online training courses for QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) take just an hour or two to do but can help save lives.

“Such programs should become part of general education for everybody in the same way as first-aid training,” says Mark.

For support day or night, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit Beyond Blue Support Service on 1300 224 365.