Earlier this evening, Parliament House stood lit in yellow and orange. It’s a simple thing, light against a building, but it carries a lot. It says: we see you. We haven’t forgotten. This matters.
Kerry Hawkins, CEO of Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) was there to mark World Suicide Prevention Day alongside Rachel Fishlock, CEO of Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia, and it’s a moment we don’t take lightly. This year’s global theme is ‘Changing the Narrative on Suicide,’ and that’s a very important message for us all, because changing a narrative isn’t just about the big public statements. It’s about the small, daily choices that most of us barely notice we’re making.
“Standing in front of Parliament House in that light, you’re reminded that this issue doesn’t belong to any one sector or any one day,” said Kerry.
“It belongs to all of us, in the language we use and the moments we choose to notice, or don’t,” she added.
“That’s what I want to sit with today, not just the illuminated building, but the unlit moments. The ones that happen in newsrooms, in boardrooms, in staff kitchens, in the sentence someone almost finishes then doesn’t,” she said.
“As leaders in the mental health sector, we talk a lot about the big, visible harms. We’re less practised at looking at the unintended consequences of our own actions, our inactions, and the language we reach for without thinking,” said Kerry.
“A headline written for impact rather than care. A colleague who goes quite in a meeting and nobody follows up. Inaction that lands very differently for someone carrying a history they’ve never disclosed at work,” Kerry continued.
“None of this is usually deliberate. That’s precisely the problem. Harm done through carelessness still leaves a mark, whether intended or not,” she added.
“We ask people to be aware of lived experience in the abstract, but awareness has to show up in the ordinary moments too, in how we report a story, how we run a meeting, how we notice when someone’s gone quiet,” said Kerry.
Many Australians reading this today are carrying something: a period of distress they lived through years ago, a family member they’ve lost, a colleague they’re quietly worried about right now. They don’t announce it. They don’t need to. What they need is a sector, and a community, that doesn’t require disclosure before it extends care.
So on World Suicide Prevention Day, our ask is a modest one. Before the next article goes to print, the next policy goes to paper, the next meeting wraps up, pause. Ask what this could mean to someone who’s further into this than we know. Choose the language that leaves the door open, not the one that closes it.
“Changing the narrative on suicide isn’t one campaign, one lit building, one day a year. It’s the accumulation of everything we do, and everything we don’t, in between,” concluded Kerry.
If this brings up anything for you, Lifeline is available 24/7 on 13 11 14, and the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
