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Since 1997, the Youth Suicide Awareness Project committee founded by the Rotary Club of Brighton North has sought funding from Rotary Clubs and friends of Rotary to enable teachers, police officers, youth social workers, school nurses and correction officers to complete a Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Welfare.

Over the last 20 years 140 graduates have received scholarships or financial support from Rotary.
The scholarship value is $6,000 per year per student.  

The Graduate Diploma is a proactive approach to addressing youth suicide by providing those people who work directly with young people to better address and improve the environment in which young people live, work, attend school and socialize to remove or reduce the factors that we know contribute to lowering wellbeing and contribute towards youth suicide.

Youth Suicide in Australia:

Some Facts

• In Australia, young people are the only group whose health has not improved over the past three decades.
• Suicide is the largest single cause of death of teenagers, and represents 19% of all deaths between the ages of 10 and 24.
• In Australia we can expect that more than 300 young people will take their own lives this year.
• Sadly for each reported suicide, there are more than twenty suicide attempts in this age group.
• The causes remain perplexingly complex, but common risk factors can be identified.
• Many victims have experienced bullying at school.
• Most have never received any form of counselling.
• More than one third have experimented with illicit and prescribed drugs.
• Many have come into contact with the police.
• Significantly, more than half have experienced a recent break-up in a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

More than 75% of all mental health problems manifest themselves before the age of twenty five.