Hidden Toll

Indigenous Suicide Hotspots

With clustering confirmed some communities were either "hotspots" for suicide followed by recovery, or they remained in the grip of suicide. Indigenous settings described as "hotspots" for suicide are nearly always due to imitation and contagion resulting in suicide clusters. Therefore suicide "hotspots" within Indigenous settings, are locations for suicide where there is intense suicidal activity, often occurring at the same site, or similar sites within a community. "Hotspots" in Indigenous settings can also be a whole community setting, with suicidal activity resulting in a whole community at risk of suicide. "Hotspots" for suicide can be self-limiting and burn out, or go on to develop into "Echo Clusters".

Promote Suicide Safe Community

This research identified that 65% of completed suicide occurred in or around the home. Therefore strategies are required to promote suicide awareness within families, suicide watch for those at risk, safety within or around the home, promote family bereavement support, and promote 'help seeking' of those at risk, to prevent suicide and promote a suicide safe community.

> Read more about the Cohort Effect

> Read more about Vulnerabilities

Articles

> "Suicide (Echo) Clusters" – Are They Socially Determined, the Result of a Pre-existing Vulnerability in Indigenous Communities in the Northern Territory and How Can We Contain Cluster Suicides?

> "Echo Clusters" - Are They a Unique Phenomenon of Indigenous Attempted and Completed Suicide?