The National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025–2035 [PDF], developed by the National Suicide Prevention Office (NSPO), is a comprehensive framework that calls for a whole-of-government and whole-of-community response to one of Australia’s most urgent public health and social justice challenges.
The Reality of Suicide in Australia
- More than 3,000 Australians die by suicide each year—an average of 9 deaths per day.
- Suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 15–44.
- Approximately 55,000 people attempt suicide annually—about 150 attempts per day.
- 1 in 6 adults (aged 16–85) report experiencing suicidal thoughts.
- The economic cost of suicide and suicide attempts is estimated at $30.5 billion per year.
- Each suicide affects an estimated 135 people, including family, friends, carers, and communities.
Who Is Most Affected?
The Strategy highlights disproportionate impacts on specific groups:
- Males: In 2023, males accounted for 76% of suicide deaths. The suicide rate among males was 18.0 per 100,000, and suicide is the leading cause of death for males aged 15–55.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: Suicide rate is 30.8 per 100,000, 2.6 times higher than the non-Indigenous population.
- Young people: Suicide accounted for nearly one-third of deaths among Australians aged 15–24.
- Older adults: Australians aged 85 and older have some of the highest suicide rates.
- LGBTIQ+ communities: Transgender and gender-diverse people experience significantly higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
- People with disability: Suicide rate is three times higher than for people without disability.
- Veterans: Ex-serving males are 26% more likely, and females are 100% more likely, to die by suicide than their counterparts in the general population. These figures reflect the increased vulnerability of veterans, particularly those discharged for medical reasons.
- Migrants: Humanitarian entrants have nearly double the suicide rate of other migrants.
Understanding Suicide: A Complex Reality
Suicide is not caused by a single factor. The Strategy identifies psychosocial factors in 67.4% of suicide deaths, including:
- Childhood abuse and neglect
- Family violence
- Discrimination and racism
- Mental illness and substance use
- Economic insecurity and unemployment
- Loneliness and social exclusion
- Bereavement and trauma
The Strategy’s Framework
The Strategy is structured around two domains:
1. Prevention of Suicidal Distress
Five key objectives:
- Safety and Security: Address child abuse, family violence, bullying, discrimination, and climate-related trauma.
- Good Health: Promote sleep, nutrition, and physical activity; reduce harm from alcohol, drugs, gambling, and chronic illness.
- Economic Security: Improve access to employment, education, housing, and financial literacy.
- Social Inclusion: Foster community connection, reduce loneliness and stigma, and support volunteering and cultural engagement.
- Navigating Life Transitions: Support during parenthood, bereavement, retirement, detention release, and military discharge.
2. Support for People in Distress
Five key objectives:
- Culture of Compassion: Reduce stigma through education, media reform, and peer-led programmes.
- Accessibility: Expand affordable, timely services; improve digital access; create safe spaces and co-responder models.
- System-Level Coordination: Implement care pathways (e.g., Zero Suicide Framework); expand aftercare services (e.g., HOPE programme); and improve data sharing.
- Holistic Approaches: Provide person-centred care that addresses socioeconomic drivers of distress.
- Increased Connection: Strengthen personal and community support networks; trial social prescribing.
Critical Enablers
To sustain change, the Strategy calls for:
- Improved governance across all levels of government.
- Embedded lived experience in policy and service design.
- Available and translated evidence to guide action.
- A capable and integrated workforce, including peer workers and GPs.
SEE Through the Lens of Catholic Social Teaching
The Catholic Church teaches that every human life is sacred, created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). Suicide, while tragic, must be met with compassion, not condemnation. The Catechism (CCC 2280–2283) affirms that those suffering grave psychological distress are not morally culpable in the same way, and that we must entrust them to God’s mercy.
The Strategy’s emphasis on dignity, inclusion, and justice resonates deeply with Catholic Social Teaching:
- Human Dignity: Every person deserves to live with dignity, free from violence, exclusion, and despair.
- Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: Suicide disproportionately affects marginalised groups—those whom the Church calls us to serve first.
- Solidarity: We are called to walk with those who suffer, not as saviours, but as companions.
- Subsidiarity and Participation: The Strategy affirms the importance of lived experience, community-led responses, and regional planning.
- The Common Good: Suicide prevention is a moral imperative for society to ensure no one is left behind.
SEE–JUDGE–ACT: A Cardijn Response
This article is the SEE. It invites us to open our eyes to the reality of suicide in Australia—not just as a statistic, but as a sign of deeper social wounds.
We now invite our readers to JUDGE this reality in light of the Gospel, Catholic Social Teaching, and their own experience. What does this Strategy reveal about our society’s priorities? About our care for the vulnerable? About our structures of exclusion or support?
And we invite you to ACT—in your families, parishes, schools, workplaces, and communities. How can we build cultures of compassion? How can we support those in distress? How can we advocate for justice, inclusion, and healing?
A Call to the Cardijn Community
Joseph Cardijn taught us to “see everything, judge everything, act.” This Strategy is a national call to see the suffering around us. As a community inspired by Cardijn, we are called to respond—not with platitudes, but with practical love, prophetic courage, and pastoral care.
Let us reflect. Let us discern. Let us act.
References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024). Serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members who have served since 1985: Suicide monitoring 1997 to 2022. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/veterans/serving-exserving-adf-suicide-monitoring-2024
National Suicide Prevention Office. (2025). National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025–2035. Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Government. https://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/nspo/projects/national-suicide-prevention-strategy