Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project: Adelaide Roundtable Report

The Adelaide Roundtable was the eleventh of twelve Roundtables conducted by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP). Six regional suicide prevention roundtables were completed in Mildura, Darwin, Broome, Cairns, Adelaide and Shoalhaven. Three topical Roundtables about Youth, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Intersex (LGBQTI) and Justice issues were undertaken and held in Canberra. The ATSISPEP also identified the need to call on various experts to assist in identifying and discussing other important and relevant issues and held expert meetings with various individuals and stakeholders to discuss critical responses, data and statistics, and clinical factors contributing to suicide.
The Adelaide Roundtable did not secure the cross-section of representation from the suicide prevention and mental health providers like other ATSISPEP Roundtables. The Adelaide Roundtable only secured nine attendees. However, the participants who did attend represented suicide prevention networks and the community that are consumers of various services. Like the participants from the other Roundtables, the Adelaide participants identified socioeconomic disadvantage as the leading cause of the negative social determinants impacting the lives of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Poverty, unemployment, lack of education, absence of appropriate services and a lack of recognition of cultural difference, and racism were identified by the Adelaide participants as the key social determinants of high rates of incarceration, self-harm, and suicide.