Suicide crisis for kids

Data highlight young Aussies’ mental health struggles

Crisis interventions for Aussie children at grave risk of attempting suicide have doubled in the past five years, with teens aged 14 to 16 noted as the highest risk group.

Data from the almost 380,000 calls and webchat contacts made to the Kids Helpline shows 3893 instances required crisis safety interventions, where counsellors were required to take immediate steps to alleviate harm, like contacting ambulance, police, or child protection services.

Of these high-pressure calls, 1706, or 44 per cent, were related to suicide attempts, followed by child abuse (27 per cent) and mental illness escalation (9 per cent).

Year-on-year, the cases involving suicide increased, with these types of contacts representing 37 per cent of crisis interventions in 2022.

Figures from the past five years also show more than a doubling of interventions related to suicide attempts, with 825 incidents in 2019 and 1706 in 2023.

Chief executive of children’s charity your town, Tracy Adams, said counsellors were trained to assist young people through their most vulnerable and at-risk periods, and help them “develop new coping skills to manage their mental health and suicidal thoughts in the long-term”.

A state-by-state breakdown revealed Victoria had the highest percentage (30 per cent) of interventions related to suicide attempts. This was followed by NSW (28 per cent), Queensland (22 per cent), South Australia (8 per cent), Western Australia (6 per cent), Tasmania (4 per cent) and the ACT (2 per cent).

“These young people often tell our counsellors, ‘I don’t want to die. I just don’t want to hurt any more,” Ms Adams said. “These resilient young people are often motivated to seek help by their reasons to live.”

However, ensuring its 144 professional counsellors are able to respond to the helpline’s 24/7 demand is another challenge.

Out of the 380,000 contacts made to the Kids Helpline, counsellors were able to respond to less than half (122,356),” said Ms Adams.

“The challenge we’ve got is that demand exceeds our capacity to respond.

“We know young people are using a lot of our resources and that’s great … but what worries us (is) how many young people potentially don’t get through when they first try.”

Queensland mum Sue Koning credits the Kids Helpline with saving her daughter, Molly, when she overdosed while suffering a mental health episode at 14. It wasn’t until after Molly’s hospitalisation that Ms Koning realised she had previously contacted the Kids Helpline, and would do so up until she was 25.

“We will always be incredibly grateful to the service because they really did save her life,” she said.

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 Lifeline 13 11 14