Preventing Youth Suicide

the past thirty years. One in six deaths of males and one in nine deaths of females aged fifteen to nineteen years in 1988 was caused by suicide. In 1966 the corresponding figure was only one in twenty for the age group 15 to 19 of age2. In 1988 there was one teenage suicide every forty-seven hours. An estimated 9,000 years of life are lost every year due to teenage suicides. In economic terms, adolescent suicides cost millions of dollars every year to the Australian economy. The loss, pain and grief suffered by the family and the community is even far greater and more profound than the economic loss. The problem of youth suicide is not confined to Australia. It is now a global problem of increasing magnitude. It is shared by the rich and poor countries. The most advanced industrialised countries, however, have experienced a rapid increase in youth suicide. According to a study by an American sociologist, David Lester (1988), youth suicide has increased dramatically in many countries since 1970. His evidence presented in Table 1 below strongly supports this assertion and clearly shows that the magnitude of the problem has increased dramatically in the rich industrialised countries. Youth Suicide Trends in Australia In Australia, the problem of youth suicide has gradually worsened since 1960. Whereas i