Mental Health Groups Say Marriage Equality Could Save 3,000 Lives A Year

This post discusses suicide.

Five of Australia’s leading mental health organisations have thrown their support behind the campaign for marriage equality, saying a Yes result could prevent as many as 3,000 youth suicide attempts per year.

The Black Dog Institute, headspace, ReachOut, the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney and Orygen, the National Centre for Excellence in Youth Mental Health launched the #mindthefacts campaign today in response to a surge in demand for mental health services since the postal survey on marriage was announced.

The campaign is aimed at “encouraging Australians to carefully consider the real and devastating links between youth suicide rates and discrimination against young LGBTIQ+ people when they cast their vote over the next six weeks”. It seeks “to ensure Australians have access to real clinical evidence and research, not alternate facts and fiction”.

The campaign’s claim that passing marriage equality in Australia will save thousands of lives is based on peer-reviewed research from the US, which found same sex marriage legislation correlated with a 7 percent reduction in the proportion of teenagers reporting a suicide attempt.

ReachOut CEO Jono Nicholas said the coalition of mental health organisations felt “collectively compelled to intervene” after witnessing the toll the debate was taking on young LGBTIQ+ Australians.

“As Australia’s leading youth mental health organisations, we see, hear and feel the real and devastating link between LGBTIQ+ discrimination and youth suicide rates and mental illness every day,” he said. “We deal in facts – and there’s one fact Australians can’t ignore: discrimination against young LGBTIQ people leads to poor mental health outcomes and a higher risk of suicide.”

The announcement affirms the concerns the LGBTIQ+ community has been voicing for years about the toll a national debate will take on vulnerable people. Studies have repeatedly confirmed that young LGBTIQ+ people, transgender youth in particular, experience levels of mental illness and suicide risk well above the national average. Mental health experts have repeatedly slammed suggestions from the No campaign that the debate “isn’t that bad” for this very reason.

Nicholas said that at the end of the day, “this campaign is not about politics, ideology or shaming those considering voting ‘No’” It is about asking Australians to #mindthefacts, because voting ‘Yes’ will undoubtedly change thousands of young lives for the better.”

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Feature image: Flickr CC.

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If you’d like to talk to someone after reading this (or at any point during the marriage equality campaign), QLife is a national counselling service for LGBTQI+ people, which operates between 3pm and midnight AEST every day. You can get in touch with them by calling 1800 184 527, or visiting their website if you’d prefer or require a text-based chat.

Read about your other options here.