Suicide in Rural and Remote Areas of Australia

Abstract

Australia's rural localities face an increasing burden of death due to suicide (Hirsch, 2006). Those groups most vulnerable to suicide appear to be males, youth, farmers and Indigenous people. Data from the Queensland Suicide Register showed that, between 2005 and 2007, male suicide rates in remote areas (36.32 per 100,000) were significantly higher than male suicide rates in non-remote areas (18.25 per 100,000). Further research has also shown that the relative rate of male suicide in rural Queensland was 1.99 compared to rates in metropolitan locations (Kõlves et al, 2009). While the gap is widest between metropolitan and remote suicide rates and the rates highest among rural males, regional suicide rates are still higher and metropolitan rates and the rural female suicide rate is higher than the urban female suicide rate. The present report aimed to present a holistic examination of suicide in regional and remote Australia. It predominantly focused on the Queensland experience and has investigated a wide range of psychological, environmental and cultural factors, within this bound geographical context.