By CASEY NEILL
GRAFFITI scrawled on signage at Ermha meant much more than your average tag.
Vandals wrote the message “stop suicide plz” outside the south east mental health service’s Dandenong office.
Ermha service development manager Samuel Crinall said it was a reasonable point to make.
“We’re not in a rush to remove it. We think it’s a good message,” he said.
“It’s a deeply concerning issue for the community.”
And Ermha is doing its best to meet the request.
It’s partnering with Life Central to seek funding for a pilot across at least four secondary schools in the south east. They’ll take independently assessed findings to the Federal Government.
Life Central CEO Drew Gormlie said it was likely the graffiti vandal had lost a loved one to suicide and was also suicidal themselves.
“People that have known somebody who has ended their life, their risk of suicide goes up significantly,” he said.
“We’re excited about the prospect of affecting our communities in such a positive way and confident that sooner or later that’s going to happen.”
The program will train teachers, staff and parents to identify students at risk of taking their lives.
Suicide Safer Communities president Debra Croft developed the program they will be using and will be one of the key trainers.
“The likelihood is that people are in such a difficult emotional and mental place that they can’t bring themselves to actually tell someone that they’re at risk,” Mr Gormlie said.
“So the goal is to be aware of that non-verbal communication.
“It’s a risk to tell somebody because the consequences of that, for instance, if you’re in a work scenario could be that you lose your job.
“You could get rejected or ostracised if you’re a school kid.”
Mr Gormlie said most people at risk said there was no one to talk to and no one who understood.
“Our goal is to make sure there’s plenty of people to talk to and understand,” he said.
Mr Crinall said the program encouraged directly asking someone whether they were considering suicide.
“Being that open and that courageous in posing the question invites people to be equally courageous in their answer,” he said.
“If you kind of skirt around the issue and ask ‘are you thinking of harming yourself?’ or ‘are you having a tough time?’ you give people opportunities to not respond.
“When you say ‘are you thinking about ending your life?’ you’re communicating that you can handle either answer.”
Mr Crinall said the program would create a more healthy, connected and supportive environment at the schools and connect students at risk to other community services.
He said there was a misconception that talking about suicide encouraged it.
“Actually the opposite is true,” he said.
“If people talk and seek help, there are more successful outcomes.”
Life Central CEO Drew Gormlie said there were 9500 road fatalities and 1500 homicides during the 10 years to 2012.
There were 22,000 suicides in the same period.
“Our goal is to actually address what is people living in silent desperation in the community,” he said.
