Suicide Awareness Stunts Don't Work in Australia or Anywhere

A year ago, this was the headline from Australia.

More Australian Defence Force veterans have killed themselves this YEAR than those who died in combat in Afghanistan due to post-traumatic stress disorders

• More soldiers committed suicide in 2016 than were killed in Afghanistan

• At least 50 Australian Defence Force personnel killed themselves this year 

• The Department of Veteran Affairs have been slammed by former soldiers

• They said the Department force them into lengthy battles for support

So they pulled stunts, just like here in the US. The headline from 2017 is this.

Veterans' 2017 suicide toll is 84, say activists

Loren Ries drew this on a road in Huonville, Tasmania, for the Veteran Chalk Challenge to draw attention to 84 Australian veterans' suicides in 2017.  Photo: Supplied

Mr Steley said the 84 figure "is a conservative estimate and only the deaths that veterans themselves can confirm as the government is still unwilling to even attempt to keep a record of the number of deaths". 

Mr Steley said the veterans had "offered so much to Australia and our government to protect them; now when they need help they are being either ignored or actively targeted by an uncaring, inflexible system." read more here