Imbi Pyman never thought she would get to such a dark place that she would consider suicide.
“Wanting to not live a minute longer — it’s not on your bucket list,” she said.
But 10 years ago her family was catapulted into navigating the mental health system after her then 12-year-old son was left traumatised by a sexual assault.
Mrs Pyman said she felt like she had nowhere to go and she would exhausted her support.
“I found myself in a car wanting to drive into oncoming traffic,” she said.
“And then I remember pulling over just desperately thinking, who can I ring? What can I do? And all I could think that I hadn’t tried was to ring Lifeline, which is what I did.”
It saved her, and Mrs Pyman is now an advisor for the mental health support service.
Imby Pyman says she was “just a normal mum” who found herself struggling to cope in dark times. (Supplied: Imby Pyman)
Her experience reveals how suicide and suicidal thoughts also affect people who do not suffer from a mental illness, but struggle to deal with challenging circumstances.
“I wasn’t mentally ill or diagnosed with anything,” she told the ABC’s AM program.
“I was just a normal mum and we were having a horrific time.”
That is why she thinks suicide prevention needs to look beyond the mental health system toward the drivers of suicidal distress and feelings of hopelessness.
The federal government’s draft advice on the latest National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which started in 2022, focuses exactly on this.
It is released today for public consultation and proposes a fundamental change to how we think and act on suicide prevention.
A greater focus on prevention
Each day in Australia, nine people die by suicide, 15 try to take their own lives and thousands more are affected by suicidal thoughts or distress with devastating impacts for families and communities.
It comes amid alarming figures showing three-quarters of Australians are feeling elevated levels of distress, pushing support services to the brink.
The national strategy highlights that this can be prevented by addressing social and economic drivers like disadvantage as well as better support for the mental health system.
Susan Edgar, a representative of those with experience of dealing with suicide, said Australia needed a change of approach.
“It’s really putting the prevention back in suicide prevention and looking upstream at how we can prevent people from getting to that point of suicidal distress in the first place,” Ms Edgar said.
The strategy also embeds the views of those with experience of suicide, which Ms Edgar believes is a game changer.
Those with lived experience identified how a lack of compassion could be a key driver of suicidal distress.
For example, Ms Edgar said when people sought financial or housing support “we need people in those services to have an understanding around suicide and to really meet people where they’re at in that setting with a culture of compassion”.
In addition to financial and housing stress, the strategy also identifies other distress-causing factors such as childhood adversity, drug and alcohol addiction, family violence and discrimination.
Raising awareness
Alan Woodward, a longtime expert in suicide prevention, said despite the efforts and growth in services to prevent suicide a new approach was needed.
“We have sadly not made the gains we would like to see in Australia towards reduced deaths and occasions where people attempt to end their lives,” Dr Woodward said.
“A mental health condition, untreated or not treated properly, is a real factor to address. But we also know that the things happening around a person are important.”
For example, Dr Woodward suggested enhancing financial counselling and support services and “build into those service providers, those people working at the frontline, an awareness around suicidal thinking and distress levels”.
He said the national strategy provided governments with short and long-term actions so suicide prevention could become a part of developing policies.
“With each policy decision there’s an opportunity to steer things towards making it easier for people and improving the overall wellbeing of the population,” Dr Woodward said.
The strategy has also been designed to reinforce the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy developed by Gayaa Dhuwi Australia.
It is open for consultation until October 27.
