With youth suicide rates rising in Queensland, parents who have lost children are speaking out

A black-and-white picture book chronicles the mental health struggles of 16-year-old Skyla Lomas.

Written months before her death, it describes “the bad guy” who “lived inside” her and the “constant battle” in her mind.

“Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. All alone and get very numb,” Lomas wrote.

Then, out of the dark, the book suddenly transitions into full colour. Beside a ship sailing into a bay are the words: “Never give up. Things can change.”

It’s been seven years since Lomas took her own life and since then the rate of child suicide has steadily increased in Queensland.

In the past five years, 128 children have died by suicide, with the rate increasing by 1.9% each year over that period, according to an annual report by the Queensland Family and Child Commission.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for those aged 10–17 years, with 20 children dying of suicide in 2022-3, the report says. This is largely due to the number of traffic deaths, which was previously the primary cause of death, reducing for children, according to Prof Kairi Kolves, from the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention at Griffith University.

But Prof Jo Robinson, who leads the youth suicide prevention team at Orygen, says the rates of child suicide increased from 2009 to 2020 on a national scale. Reliable data for subsequent years is not yet available.

“Queensland is not alone in this problem,” she says. “We’re seeing rising mental health crisis across the country and it really just needs to be addressed by federal and state governments.”

‘Services are at capacity or over capacity’

Robinson says the drivers of youth suicide are complex and there is no single cause.

“The majority of young people who die from suicide have experienced mental health problems or psychological distress,” she says.

Risk factors include self-harm, childhood trauma, childhood adversity, and “a family history of mental health and bereavement [or] exposure to suicide”, Robinson says.

Bullying, both online and in real life, is also a major concern.

Lomas’ mother, Melissa Wilkinson, says her daughter experienced mental health issues and she does not feel she was treated with compassion during hospital visits prior to her death.

Lomas says she felt it was see more as “attention-seeking behaviour”.

Guardian Australia contacted the Queensland Children’s Hospital for comment.

In the years since her daughter’s death, Wilkinson has undertaken suicide intervention training. She believes mental health first aid should be taught in schools.

Robinson agrees more resources are needed.

“Services are at capacity or over capacity,” she says.

“Young people are having to wait far longer than they should to access services like a GP service, a Headspace primary care service, [or] tertiary mental health specialists care when they’re really unwell.”

‘She had the biggest heart’

Sam Davis lost her 13-year-old daughter, Chloe, to suicide seven years ago.

At the time there were rumours that intimate images of Chloe were being circulated online. Police found no evidence of these images and there were no allegations of “sextortion”, but Sam says her daughter was “embarrassed and ashamed”. What drove Chloe to take her own life ultimately remains unknown.

Davis says her daughter always wanted to make everyone else happy.

“I just felt like she didn’t get that in return. She had the biggest heart.”

Robinson says one of the biggest reasons that people are calling Kids Helpline at the moment is because of image-based abuse – where intimate photos are shared without consent.

Kids Helpline confirmed they have seen a consistent increase in sextortion, receiving 431 reports between July 2017 and June 2023. Prior to January 2021, there were fewer than five reports a month. The organisation is now responding to about 30 reports a month.

It comes as Queensland’s chief health officer, John Gerrard, declared a public health alert over the mental wellbeing of teenagers.

“There’s a whole range of settings where we need to be focused on suicide prevention for young people; our political service system, schools, and online social media environments,” Robinson says.

Kolves says children are more vulnerable than adults when it comes to shame and humiliation, which may “trigger suicidal behaviour”.

“We need to, from early on, help and to teach little kids how to solve these problems,” she says.

A need for a neurodivergent lens

Joshua Klumper had Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which his mother, Ursula Skjonnemand, believes masked his emotional distress.

In 2017, Klumper presented at the emergency ward of Gold Coast university hospital with his grandmother. He described having “crazy” and depressive thoughts and disclosed detoxing from cannabis, according to a coroner’s report.

Three days later the 17-year-old attempted suicide near his grandmother’s house and later died in hospital from his injuries.

“Josh would have a poker face. So he needed someone like me to essentially translate and advocate for him,” Skjonnemand said.

“We’re not taking appropriate actions and we’re not listening to parents.”

Kolves said it can be challenging for health care workers to gauge the needs of neurodiverse people.

“Clinicians need to know how to deal with suicide risk,” she says.

Skjonnemand was left “disappointed” by a coronial inquest into her son’s death which occurred due to her consistent advocacy.

The inquest found that “whilst Josh was experiencing psychological stressors, there is no evidence he was seriously psychiatrically unwell on 2 or 5 September 2017 [in the days before his death]”.

Skjonnemand felt the inquest did not “utilise the opportunity” to prevent deaths in similar circumstances.

A Gold Coast Health spokesperson said the “coroner found the care provided to this patient was appropriate and made no comments or recommendations”.

“ The loss of a loved one to suicide is incredibly distressing and we continue to extend our condolences to Josh’s family.”

Helping children ‘discover a way through’

Hayley Purdon is a suicide prevention advocate. The 36-year-old developed an eating disorder in high school and experienced suicidal thoughts.

“There was a lot of pressure to be perfect … a lot of feelings of shame,” she says.

Purdon began the road to recovery after a therapist taught her mindfulness and encouraged her to feel her feelings.

“I still sometimes have thoughts of suicide … but I know they’re only temporary and that they will pass.”

Parents or guardians supporting children shouldn’t try to “fix them”, Purdon says.

“The role when that young person is struggling is not to control their behaviour and to try and fix them or change them,” she says.

“It’s just there to help them explore and discover a way through on their own.”