National award for suicide prevention team

Alice Springs’s Culture Care Connect Suicide Prevention Team has won a national award for its approach to reduce suicide among Indigenous communities.

The National Rural and Remote Health Awards in Canberra was told of the unique approach the eram has taken, focussing on listening and using traditional culture.

“As a kid you have to sit and listen so as not to scare the animals away, and just listen to the land. That is our culture,” project coordinator Rachel Abbott told the ABC.

Men needed

Suicide rates in Australia are high, and in the Northern Territory even higher.

Aboriginal people are 2.8 times more likely to die by suicide. For Aboriginal Northern Territorians the rate is 36 deaths per 100,000.

The team is 100 per cent Aboriginal, but they are appealing for more men to step forward to help.

Men were harder to engage, Ms Abbott said. “Men are the silent ones.”

• 13YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders)