Australia's youth suicide hotspots linked to mental health service access

The eight hotspots were identified by researchers where there were significantly more suicides than would be expected.

These were parts of country NSW and South Australia, and large swathes of remote and regional Western Australia and Queensland.

Researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute found communities were eight times more likely to be hotspots if access to mental health services was poor.

In contrast metropolitan Sydney and Perth were identified as 'coldspots' where rates of suicide were far lower.

Led by suicide prevention researcher Dr Nicole Hill, the team analysed national coronial data to map the suicides of nearly 2000 young people aged 10 to 24 years between 2016 and 2020.

Dr Hill said they analysed how accessible mental health services were to young people at the time of their death.

"We found areas with low mental health workforce supply were associated with eightfold greater odds of a suicide occurring in a hotspot compared to non-cluster suicides," she said.

"The suicide coldspots we identified all occurred in areas characterised by moderate-to-high mental health workforce supply."

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Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44 years.

Dr Hill said the paper represented the first controlled study where researchers had been able to show a strong link between service access and higher or lower suicide rates.

"It's really the first time we have been able to identify a modifiable risk factor because we can't make a community less remote, but we can improve access to services in that community," she said.

"It's an empowering message: there is something we can actually do about it."

The researchers found better access to mental health services may be a protective factor against suicide in young people.

Dr Hill said that has important implications for the prevention of suicide clusters.

"When a young person dies by suicide, there is often a lot of fear and anxiety about the prospect of further deaths in the community," she said.

"This research suggests that providing timely access to mental health services, particularly in the aftermath of a suicide, may potentially be protective against further deaths."