According to an article written by Susan Beaton and Dr. Peter Forster in
InPsych of 2012, “suicide is the number one killer of men under 44 …” (Beaton)
in Australia. The rate of suicide among men
versus women (all ages) is 3 – 1. According
to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2012 young men between 15 – 24
were twice as likely to die of suicide than women and with regard to “Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders, the rate of suicide in male youth from 15 – 19 was
over 4 times higher than other Australian youth” (ABS) and the highest rate of
suicide occurs in young aboriginal men between the ages of 20 – 24 yrs. It should be noted that the median age for
suicide is going down and in the past year there were two cases of boys as
young as 11 killing themselves. This is
a crises and we need to understand why so many of our young men are choosing to
end their lives.
It is widely know that mental health issues are a huge factor in the
reason people commit suicide. While
Australia has worked extremely hard to ensure services are available the very
culture of masculinity prevents many males from seeking the help they need. In fact according to Cassie White in her
article Boys don’t cry: young men and suicide, “… only 27 per cent of men seek
professional help, compared to 40 percent of women” (White) Don’t cry, be strong, work through it, all
terms slung at boys and young men as they navigate through their life. They fear turning to family members as they
are afraid of being classified as a sissy, so in turn they internalize their
problems and eventually, for some, this becomea too big a burden and they end
their lives. The Aussie culture evolves around a strong bloke. This is an
oversimplification of the root of the problem, as there are
multiple factors that come into play, abuse, rape, poverty, race, culture, etc.
however, I believe that young males are less likely to seek help on any of
these issues because of the way they have been taught to act within the realm
of their masculinity and the culture of the country. In order to cope
with the stressors they are experiencing, young men often turn to alcohol or other destructive behaviors as a
way to survive. This exacerbates the
problem and actually puts them at a higher risk of hurting themselves.
I cannot leave this
blog without speaking to the disparity between Aboriginal youth and other
Australian youth. Firstly, the indigenous population in Australia make up
approximately 3% of the population and they experience higher rates of poverty,
physical abuse, illiteracy, unemployment and substance abuse than other groups
in Australia. Therefore, when we see
figures, stating that the rate of suicide for young Aboriginal men is 4 times
higher than their Australian counterparts, it becomes clear that this specific
group of men are in a clear crises mode.
Australian Bureau of Statistics,
(2012) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Deaths. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/3309.0~2010~Chapter~Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+suicide+deaths?OpenDocument
Beaton, Susan & Forster, P. (2012) Insights into men’s suicide.
InPsych August 2012
White, Cassie (2013) ABC Health & Wellbeing
No comments:
Post a Comment