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Report: Review of Child Death Review Team Report: Suicide and Risk-taking Deaths of Children and Young People
Debate resumed from 7 June 2005.
The Hon. DON HARWIN [3.24 p.m.]: Last June the Committee on Children and Young People, on which I used to serve but no longer serve, tabled its review of the Child Death Review Team report into suicide and risk-taking deaths among children and young people. The Child Death Review Team investigated the cases of all deaths by suicide and risk taking among children and young people in New South Wales during the period January 1996 to December 2000. The study findings indicated a variety of avenues for the prevention of further such deaths. The review team's report included a list of study findings that were not recognised within the New South Wales Suicide Prevention Strategy and recommended that the strategy be updated to reflect those findings.
In late 2004 the committee investigated the status of the report's findings and measures being undertaken to improve prevention and intervention. Both Ms Gillian Calvert, Commissioner for Children and Young People and convenor of the Child Death Review Team, and Professor Beverley Raphael, Director, New South Wales Centre for Mental Health, gave evidence to the committee in public hearings and provided written responses to questions taken on notice. My colleague the Hon. Melinda Pavey now serves on the committee. She heard the evidence and questioned the witnesses. I look forward to hearing from her in this debate.
The Hon. MELINDA PAVEY [3.26 p.m.]: It is with pleasure that I speak in this take-note debate on the report entitled "Review of the Child Death Review Team Report: Suicide and risk-taking deaths of children and young people". In March 2005 the Committee on Children and Young People took evidence from Gillian Calvert and Professor Beverley Raphael. I realise that some time has elapsed between the giving of evidence and the tabling of the committee's report on this review, however, it is important to detail, from the perspectives of all members of the committee, some of the more interesting findings relating to the 187 children who died between 1996 and 2000 as a result of suicide or risk-taking activities.
From 1996 to 2000 a total of 1,814 children aged between 12 and 17 died. Of that number, 23 per cent, or 187, died as a result of suicide or risk-taking activities. Of those 187, 80 committed suicide. Interestingly, the majority of the 80 who committed suicide were female. Some 66 per cent of children who died as result of suicide or risk-taking activities were from dysfunctional families. It is our job as members of Parliament to determine whether the Government is delivering services appropriately to try to prevent so many young children in this State from dying every year, and to decide whether a change in policy direction might provide better outcomes. The executive summary of the report points out that 38.5 per cent of the children and young people who died were living in intact and biologically related families at the time of their deaths.
The report points out that this figure proportionately is substantially lower than figures for the population of New South Wales. In 1997 in New South Wales, 69.6 per cent of all children and young people aged 12 to 17 years lived with both biological parents. That is an interesting statistic and an interesting way to present it. The corollary of that would be that children and young people are much better off with their biological parents than they are without them, and I do not think anybody would argue with that in its totality. But I think some may have a different opinion when they are made aware of some of the biological parents that children in New South Wales are left with.
[Interruption]
I hear scoffs and comments of "disgusting" from across the Chamber, and that is part of the problem. We are not actually allowed to talk about such issues openly and to look beneath some of the problems to examine issues associated with why children are dying across this State. Of the 124 children and young people who died as a result of risk-taking activities or suicide, 80 died by suicide—that is 72 per cent of all suicide cases—and 38 died as a result of risk-taking activities, such as drug overdose or car accidents involving risky behaviour. Intent was unable to be determined in relation to six deaths.
I take this opportunity to read from some of the evidence that was provided and from the chair's findings. Findings of the Child Death Review Team report provide a basis for finetuning policies, practical programs and service provision to minimise the likelihood of young people feeling driven to take such desperate measures. Committee members would agree completely with that. I also flag that a question was put to Gillian Calvert that the Child Death Review Team noted that the Department of Community Services [DOCS] is conducting a literature review and redesigning its data capabilities in relation child deaths. When asked whether both projects had been completed, the commissioner replied that, at that point in time, she was not aware that research had been completed by DOCS—something that I would have thought was particularly important.
Another interesting finding is that in 185 cases of the death of a child as a result of high risk-taking activity or suicide, only 40 children had contacted their school counsellor. That statistic is worth remembering. Perhaps the school counsellors in our public education system—and I was a student of the public education system, which provided a school counsellor at the school I attended—cannot easily be approached by students who are experiencing problems. That is something certainly worth considering.
During the hearing we discussed adoption practices and whether the Government was adhering to its own 2001 legislation. The purpose of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment (Permanency Planning) Act, which was enacted in 2001, was to assist the courts and the Department of Community Services to make hard decisions when children are being abused and neglected by parents.
Pursuant to standing orders business interrupted.