Suicide Counselling: Too Little, Too Late

Your problems? Solved. email nick leth at gmail dot com. No worries. Now.

I know that this blog is supposed to be ranting, raging and raving. This post is just sad.

In The West today (21 Apr 12) is an article about the high level of suicides in Aboriginal communities. Fatal despair of the young. "There is something dreadfully wrong in our community, but what can we do?"

When they took away our CDEP, more people started drinking.

When "they" took away our CDEP...

Whoever "they" are, they have a lot to answer for.

Yet I can't find it in me to believe that the Aboriginal community can drag itself out of the mire. It does need help. Not just money. Help to raise its own ability to manage its own affairs.

The "they" who are at fault are not the people who provide -- or don't provide -- money for local make-work. If any "they" are to blame it is the "they" who demand the right to self-management for people who are not yet able to self manage.

The Standby Suicide Response Service... visits every community after a suicide to give counselling and to organise activities. But... counselling is not always possible because people are grieving and want to be alone.

I'm sure that the Suicide Response Service means well, but just look at what its co-ordinator has said: We turn up at the wrong time.

Listen to yourself!

Okay, it's a response service. So they may be restricted in what they do.

So set up a more timely service... One that has the resources to provide support when it is needed. At a more appropriate time. A time which suits the needs of the people who need the support.

The article mentions a new mental health facility in Broome. A $30 million facility. In Broome.

Do potential suicides go to Broome on their way to kill themselves? Well, no.

The article does not link the new facility to suicide prevention. Perhaps someone else has? In the article, the new facility is simply a major expenditure which will not affect the remote community suicide rate.

There are several points to be drawn from this article.

• People need something to do. Something which makes them feel useful, perhaps even wanted, maybe even valuable.
• Paying for make-work is better than nothing. Generating real work -- even with external financial support -- is even better.
• When a community is not able to manage itself, that is when it needs help. Forget the fear of "paternalism". Provide people who can show how a community could be run -- and who will take charge until the community has grown into self-management.
• Provide the necessary support where it is needed and when it is needed. Fly in fly out is of very limited value.

And if all that costs too much... Start somewhere. Pick one community. Try to make it work. And then do it again in another community.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems. Agamedes Consulting: Support for your thought. email nick leth at gmail dot com

We save water: You can too.

Your problems? Solved. email nick leth at gmail dot com. No worries. Now.

Our latest water consumption bill is sitting in front of me. It clearly shows how much less water we use this year, compared to last year:

• This period last year -- 400 kL
• This period this year -- 64 kL

No, it's not that we live in a drought zone. For comparison, the water bill provides these averages:

• Our suburb, without bore -- 295 kL
• Our suburb, with bore -- 170 kL

For several years our water bills included little notes. Notes such as, "You are real water hogs. You use far more water than any of your neighbours." Notes that are intended to shame us into saving water.

So, we saved water.

How did we do it?

First, we called a plumber to fix several dripping taps. And to stop the regular dripping overflow from our hot water system.

Two of the taps still drip. The plumber also added water hammer to our plumbing problems. The hot water system doesn't drip, it flows.

We're not interested in spending another $200 for bad plumbing. So we put up with dripping taps. And occasionally empty the hot water overflow into the pool or garden.

That did not save us any water.

Next, we replaced our old dual flush toilets with the latest models. The old toilets were leaking, continuing to flow after the cistern was full. The new toilets don't leak. They also use less water -- per flush.

Our new toilets use less water per flush.

Unfortunately, the new "full flush" is not enough to actually flush the toilet.

Have you ever come back to a toilet to find something nasty and brown and smelly floating... disintegrating... in the bowl? This used to be a problem in public toilets. Thanks to our new low flush toilets, we now have the same problem at home.

Now, as a matter of habit, I flush twice.

So no, our new dual flush / low flush toilets do not reduce our water use. If anything, they have increased the amount of water that we use.

Our children have left home. You would expect that that would reduce our water use... It probably would, if they did not come here to do their weekly washing.

Still... less people in the house must reduce our water usage by some amount. I can recommend living alone as one way to reduce household water consumption.

Which, as an aside, is the key to the real problem behind our water "shortage": too many people. But business and government want to pack in more people, so get used to pressure to cut your water consumption.

Anyway... How did we manage to so drastically reduce our water consumption? It's easy! Is it something that you can do? Yes!

We installed a garden bore.

Now our vegetable garden is a bed of green productivity. (After being a death-bed of dried and dying weeds, for many years.) Our lawn is green, rather than brown. Even our native plant garden is thriving!

Of course, we're drawing water from underground instead of via pipes from the dam. Our power bill is increased.

But look at all the (scheme) water that we have saved! Our first water usage bill -- post bore installation -- even had a congratulatory note. "Well done. You are using far less water than any of your neighbours." We are so proud :-)

So that is how we have done our bit to reduce our scheme water consumption. You too can reduce water usage -- with no positive effect on overall environmental destruction.

You -- and the 1.7 million other Perth residents -- can install a bore and reduce your scheme water consumption.

Of course while there are still 1.7 million of us -- and growing -- the environment is stuffed.

But no-one cares about that. Not enough to actually say, Enough is enough.

So follow our example. "Save" water. Suck the environment dry. And brag about our efforts to be... sustainable.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems. Agamedes Consulting: Support for your thought. email nick leth at gmail dot com