The New South Wales government has poured money into suicide prevention services as Sydney residents endure a ninth week of lockdown.
Self-harm attempts have risen as Covid restrictions stop people from having visitors to their home and individuals are cut off from their family and friends.
In NSW, individuals face a $1,000 fine if they have a visitor over to their home who is not registered as part of a government-mandated singles bubble.
Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor noted same-sex attracted people, the elderly and those living in regional areas were particularly at risk, as she announced an $8million funding boost to mental health groups.
The New South Wales government has poured money into suicide prevention services as Sydney residents endure a ninth week of lockdown (pictured are groups of two sitting on park benches at Milsons Point on Sydney’s Lower North Shore)
‘We know that there are some groups of individuals who are at greater risk of suicide due to issues such as past trauma, stigma or isolation,’ she said.
‘These experiences not only destabilise their mental health and sense of connectedness, they also make it extremely hard to ask for support.
‘This is all about encouraging safe conversations around suicide and suicidal behaviour so people in these priority groups know how and where to access the help that is right for them.’
Gay support group ACON, Anglican Community Services, HealthWISE – New England North West Health, Grand Pacific Health, Suicide Prevention Australia and Wellways Australia are the recipients of the $8million in new funding.
The announcement was made as the NSW government’s Suicide Monitoring System noted 8,489 young people under 18 were hospitalised for self-harm or suicidal thoughts in the year to July 29.
That equated to 40 children a day in a state of crisis, a rise of 31 per cent compared with the same time frame in 2020 and 47 per cent higher than 2019 before the pandemic.
In Victoria, the figures are even worse with 156 teenagers a week rushed to hospital for self harm, an 88 per cent increase when the year to May 2021 was compared with 2020, figures from the Victorian Agency for Health Information obtained by The Weekend Australian revealed.
Melbourne’s sixth lockdowns is set to be extended, which will see children kept away from the classroom for more than 200 days since the pandemic began.
Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor noted same-sex attracted people, the elderly and those living in regional areas were particularly at risk, as she announced an $8million funding boost to mental health groups (pictured are police at Sydney’s Bondi Beach)
University of New South Wales psychology professor Richard Bryant said people struggled to cope the longer lockdowns went on.
‘What we tend to see is that people get anxious at the start, then when the effects of social isolation wear on, it becomes a depressive reaction: people’s coping resources get eroded over time,’ he said.
Professor Bryant said the lockdowns of 2021 to contain the more contagious Indian Delta variant was also a more frightening time.
‘I believe we are more frightened than last year’s lockdown,’ he said.
‘If you look at the messaging from the government, the spread of the Delta strain and intensive care unit admissions, these are the reasons people are more scared of the virus.’
The announcement was made as the NSW government’s Suicide Monitoring System noted 8,489 young people under 18 were hospitalised for self-harm or suicidal thoughts in the year to July 29. That equated to 40 children a day (pictured is an ambulance in Sydney’s inner west)
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Australia needed to open up once 70 per cent of people aged 16 and over were fully vaccinated, otherwise the mental health crisis would worsen.
He pleaded with the states to back the National Cabinet plan, based on Doherty Institute modelling, as Labor premiers Mark McGowan from Western Australia and Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk threaten to keep their borders closed even with 80 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.
‘This is why we must stick to the plan. The health of our economy, and the wellbeing of our community, depends on it,’ Mr Frydenberg said in an opinion piece for The Australian.
NSW Chief Psychiatrist Murray Dr Murray Wright said everyone was mentally affected.
‘We should assume every single person in the community is impacted by the pandemic and restrictions,’ he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Monday.
NSW has recorded 1,290 new daily cases of Covid, with 80 per cent in Sydney’s west and south-west.
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