Ariella Traurig, Professor Karen R Fisher, Dr Alan Woodward
This article discusses suicide and suicide prevention. If this raises concerns for you or someone you know, support is available 24/7: Lifeline 13 11 14, 13YARN 13 92 76 (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support), Beyond Blue 1300 224 636. If there is immediate danger, call 000.
Why has Australia’s approach to suicide prevention changed?
Suicide remains a national priority in Australia. Despite decades of investment in services and awareness campaigns, the rate of suicide has not significantly declined.
Too many lives continue to be lost each year, leaving devastating impacts on families, communities and workplaces.
Australia is not alone in this situation; other western countries including Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom, are facing static or increasing suicide rates.
The need for change is clear. In the past, suicide prevention efforts focused heavily on treatment once people are already in crisis, or after an attempt to end their life. Health services have been oriented towards reactive care for individuals. While attention to each person’s care needs is essential, it is insufficient to address the public health aspects of suicide, the underlying causes and preventative factors surrounding suicide.
A broader, more systemic strategy is required. Social determinants such as housing insecurity, unemployment, poverty, discrimination, involvement with the justice system, and social exclusion all shape distress and risk of suicide. The new National Suicide Prevention Strategy (Strategy) responds to this reality. It represents a major shift from fragmented crisis responses towards prevention and systems change.
The Strategy recognises that suicide prevention cannot sit solely within mental health services and individual treatment plans. Instead, it must be embedded across all areas of life if it is to be effective. This holistic approach reflects international best practice in public health, including the World Health Organization’s “Health in All Policies” model and global moves towards human-rights-based approaches to health and wellbeing.
"Every year in Australia, more than 3,000 people die by suicide — nearly nine people a day. Suicide remains the leading cause of death for people aged 15-44, and the second leading cause of years of life lost, with over 159,000 years of potential life lost to suicide in Australia each year." - National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Why is suicide prevention a human rights issue?
The shift in outlook on suicide prevention recognises that suicide is not just a health challenge – it is a human rights concern. Every person has the right to life, health, dignity and safety. When preventable barriers push people into despair, these human rights are at risk.
International law and convention reinforces this responsibility. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights guarantees “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”.
The UN Human Rights Committee’s General Comment 36 (2019) makes it clear that governments should take "adequate measures... to prevent suicides, especially among individuals in particularly vulnerable situations".
Global commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 3) also explicitly include reducing suicide as a shared international target.
Framing suicide prevention as a human right changes the conversation. It places clear accountability on governments and systems — not only to provide crisis support and hospital care, but also to address the broader drivers of distress, such as poverty, discrimination, housing instability and violence. Upholding human rights requires both prevention and crisis response, ensuring dignity, fairness and safety for all.
What is the National Suicide Prevention Strategy?
Launched in 2025, the Strategy is Australia’s first long-term, nationally coordinated, whole-of-government plan to reduce suicide and distress. It is world leading and the most comprehensive framework of its kind ever developed in this country.
The Strategy moves beyond patchy, fragmented service delivery toward a connected, systemic approach. It is structured around two domains: Prevention and Support. These are underpinned by a set of Critical Enablers; lived experience leadership, governance, workforce development and data. Together, they provide the foundation needed to put the Strategy into practice.
The ambition of the Strategy is clear: to reduce distress, save lives and embed longer term, suicide prevention across all areas of public policy, from health and housing to education, employment and justice.
“It is our hope that this Strategy is utilised, not just by governments, but by service providers, communities and individuals.” -National Suicide Prevention Strategy
How is lived experience shaping the future of suicide prevention?
Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect of the Strategy is the central role of lived and living experience. In the past, people with personal experience of suicide were too often sidelined, consulted late or involved only symbolically. The new Strategy rejects that approach.
The experiences of more than 3000 people with lived or living experience of suicide informed the Suicide Prevention Adviser’s Final Advice, which underpins the Strategy. This extensive consultation — one of the largest of its kind internationally — included reviews of research, community workshops and other opportunities for people to share their perspectives.
Their knowledge helped shape the priorities and actions, ensuring the Strategy reflects the experience and context of the people and communities most affected. Advisory structures such as the Lived Experience Partnership Group (LEPG) and the national Advisory Board now embed these voices in ongoing decision-making.
The Strategy explicitly recognises lived experience as expertise. Critical Enabler 12 — Embedded Lived Experience — commits to building leadership, strengthening participation and ensuring involvement is safe, respectful and meaningful.
This approach moves beyond tokenism. By making lived experience central, the Strategy becomes more accountable, authentic and responsive to real needs. The commitment signals a future where suicide prevention is shaped by people who understand it most directly.
"Continued efforts to build the skills, knowledge and capabilities of people with lived experience of suicide are necessary if we are to generate the cultural changes and systemic shifts needed for driving down the suicide rate. Key to the Strategy’s success is the accountability of governments, and agencies across government, for implementation consistent with the Strategy’s engagement of people with lived experience of suicide. Sadly, government agencies at all levels are mostly still in the earliest phases of developing meaningful lived experience participation in their suicide prevention activities, or even understanding why this is so critical.” -Bronwen Edwards, National Suicide Prevention Office Advisory Board member
Why does suicide prevention require a whole-of-society approach?
The new Strategy makes it clear that suicide prevention is not the responsibility of mental health services alone. Many other services and functions of government can play a role. The risks of distress — and the opportunities to build protective factors — are found everywhere: in families and communities, schools, workplaces, Centrelink offices, hospitals, housing systems and the justice system.
A person’s risk of suicide may depend on whether they have a safe home, a secure income, a sense of belonging, and a supportive community. That is why the Strategy applies a “suicide prevention in all policies” approach, drawing on the World Health Organization’s global Health in All Policies model. Every system has a role to play. Education can foster connection and resilience, workplaces can create supportive cultures, employment and income systems can reduce financial stress, and housing and justice systems can provide fairer, safer pathways.
By promoting stronger coordination across sectors, building workforce capability and ensuring consistent care pathways, the Strategy aims to prevent distress from escalating into a suicidal crisis. This integrated model reframes suicide prevention as everyone’s business — and that is what makes it world-leading.
What needs to happen to make the Strategy a success?
The Strategy sets a bold direction, but its success depends on action, including sustained funding, strengthened coordination across all levels of government, workforce training and strong governance and accountability. Without this commitment, there is a risk it could remain another ambitious plan left on the shelf.
Continuing to embed lived and living experience leadership during implementation is also critical. Their expertise helps ensure the Strategy avoids slipping back into top-down decision-making and remains connected to the realities of those most affected.
Work is also underway on an Outcomes Framework to define and measure progress. These co-produced measures will capture both data and lived experience, boosting accountability and creating a foundation for continuous improvement as new evidence emerges.
The Strategy marks a turning point. By treating suicide prevention as a matter of human rights, embedding lived experience and adopting a whole-of-society approach, it sets a new benchmark for the world.
With funding, coordination and commitment, the Strategy has the potential to save thousands of lives and reshape how we think about suicide prevention — creating a society where everyone has the conditions to live with dignity, safety and hope.
Karen R Fisher is a Professor at the Social Policy Research Centre and an Associate of the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Sydney. Dr Alan Woodward is the Head of Policy for Lifeline International, former Advisory Board Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Office and a former National Mental Health Commissioner. Ariella Traurig is a Social Work student at UNSW Sydney.