AUSTRALIA
Courier
Melissa CunninghamMelissa Cunningham
@MeljCunningham
19 Oct 2016
Lifeline has been inundated with calls for help in the wake of the royal commissions into child sexual abuse and family violence.
During a visit to Ballarat on Wednesday, Lifeline chief executive Pete Shmigel said calls to the service related to past childhood trauma and family violence have been steadily increasing.The number of Australians taking their own lives has hit a 10-year high.
Mr Shmigel said rates of suicide were up to two and half times higher in regional areas than metropolitan cities. Ballarat is estimated to have between 100 and 150 annual suicide deaths but no official figures have ever been released.
“Suicide never comes down to a single factor, it is a tremendously complex phenomena,” he said. “Different things contribute to it, whether it’s trauma, abuse, family violence, economic restructures. Most of the people that call us aren’t actually mentally unwell. They’re overwhelmed, isolated and they feel alone.”
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