Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Suicide prevention

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:07): I also love the fact that I get to meet very many constituents in the work that I do. Recently I came to meet Bree. Bree is the mother of three boys. Very sadly, Bree lost one of her sons due to youth suicide. Bree is not the first, and sadly Bree will not be the last. But Bree is having a fundraiser on 23 June, in Mitcham, and I would certainly like to encourage as many people as is humanly possibly to support Bree and her quest that no mother, no father, no anyone should have to go through the experience of losing a child to suicide.

That also leads me indirectly to Wayne Holdsworth. Wayne Holdsworth is not a constituent of mine, but I met with Wayne on Monday of this week. I came across Wayne because I read an opinion piece he wrote in the Age. He too talked about losing his son, Mac. He lost Mac when he was 17 years of age. One of the symptoms that Wayne was not familiar with, and neither was I, was the fact that Mac was euphoric on the night he took his life. That by all accounts is a sign that he had made the decision to take his life.

I would urge all Victorians to have a conversation with their children and to read Wayne Holdsworth’s opinion piece online. We lost 801 Victorians to suicide last year. We cannot afford to lose any more.