The ABC’s Natasha Robinson reports (12.10.16) on details of a federal government-initiated report which highlights the urgent action needed to tackle an ‘epidemic’ of suicide among members of Indigenous communities.
‘Aboriginal suicides are at record levels in remote Australia and mainstream prevention programs are failing, a major report has concluded.
‘The ABC has obtained a copy of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP), co-chaired by West Australian professor Pat Dudgeon and former social justice commissioner Tom Calma.
‘The report calls for a radical rethink in Indigenous mental health policy to place Aboriginal people at the centre of care.
‘It calls for the immediate development of an Indigenous-led national prevention plan to stem a rising tide of Aboriginal deaths.
‘The project forms the foundation of the Federal Government’s policy response to the Indigenous suicide crisis, which has claimed 680 Aboriginal lives between 2011 and 2015.’
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