Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide in South Australia

Analysis of key factors associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide in South Australia

Project Aim:

To conduct a thematic review of coronial information regarding South Australian suicides that took account of trauma, grief and loss, involvement with the justice system and cultural factors similar to markers of cultural continuity.

Objectives:

1. Develop a strengths-based approach to suicide prevention and intervention for Aboriginal and Torres Islander people and communities.
2. Compare the coroner’s cases of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous suicide.
3. Explore the distinctive context of Indigenous suicide.
4. Develop an Indigenous cultural framework for suicide research, policy and programs.
5. Build capacity of early and mid-career researchers in Indigenous health research.
6. Build partnerships with key stakeholders to enable research translation.

Project Team:

Project leader: Dr Tamara Mackean, Senior Research Fellow, Flinders University
Project partners: South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Administering organisation: Flinders University
Project timeline: 1 February 2016—30 June 2019 (amended)

Methodology

• Conducted a scoping review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature.
• Developed a list of factors that were reviewed by the full investigator group.
• Workshop 1: Review and discussion about indicators by the community members and stakeholders: suitability of the factors, query if additional factors should be added.
• Development of a draft analysis framework.
• Draft analysis framework piloted by researchers — minor adjustments were made and additional categories added.
• Development of the final analysis framework.
• Ethics approval received and permission granted to access the NCIS database.
• Use of the analysis framework on data for all suicides between 2000 and 2015.

Project Findings

Between 2000 and 2015 in South Australia, there were 3,201 suicides. Of these, 73 were identified as Aboriginal people and 2 were identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (total n=75). (Refer to Table 1)

Table 1: Total number of suicides in SA 2000-2015 by cultural group

Table 2: Risk and protective factors for Aboriginal suicide, as identified through a scoping review of the literature and community and stakeholder expertise

The project identified several protective factors and risk factors. The following is a summary of the protective factors at the individual, organisational, societal, and global levels:

• Individual level
  • strong sense of identity
  • self-esteem and pride
  • sense of purpose and satisfaction in life
  • being engaged in activities (e.g, sport, land management).
• Organisational level
  • adequate resourcing in terms of infrastructure (including data management systems) and for holistic operations
  • culturally responsive and representative workforce
  • training opportunities for Aboriginal people
  • non-discriminatory organisation processes and procedures facilitating community engagement, participation and cross agency work.
• Societal level
  • inclusive society that accepts difference with structures and institutions that enable self-determination.
• Supranational level
  • recognition of sovereignty
  • valuing Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

Project Outcomes