Newcastle has been chosen as the first of four sites in New South Wales for an innovative new trial aimed at reducing suicide by 20 per cent by using a whole-of-community approach.

Key points: Lifespan trial involves combination of nine proven strategies

Lifespan trial involves combination of nine proven strategies Sites include Newcastle, Central Coast, Illawarra and Murrumbidgee

Sites include Newcastle, Central Coast, Illawarra and Murrumbidgee Australia has a higher suicide rate than the UK, Netherlands and Spain

The director of the Hunter Institute of Mental Health said Lifespan, which has been developed by the Black Dog Institute, involved the simultaneous implementation of nine strategies already proven to reduce suicide.

"[The trial will include] community-facing strategies like working with the media, reducing access to means of suicide, increasing community awareness and engagement with the issue of suicide and suicide prevention," Jaelea Skehan said.

"It also includes a range of training type strategies, so training for gatekeepers or people who might come into contact with people at risk of suicide."

The program also combines GP services and targeted school awareness programs.

It was developed in partnership with researchers, clinicians, community organisations and individuals who have an experience of suicide in their life.

Newcastle will be the first area to use the program, followed by the Central Coast, the Illawarra and the Murrumbidgee.

The regions were chosen as they have higher than average rates of suicide, compared to the rest of the state.

Suicide rates in Australia higher than other OECD countries

Australia has a higher suicide rate than a number of other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Spain.

Director of the Black Dog Institute, Professor Helen Christensen, said Australia has a higher level of self-harm than places such as Spain, which has about 25 per cent youth unemployment.

"We think of Australians as being healthier and more athletic, as we're coming into the Olympics, and so on," she said.

"But if you actually compare where we sit in the OECD in terms of suicide rates, we're higher than the average country.

"So, we're higher than South Africa, we're higher than Spain, we're higher than the Netherlands, we're higher than the UK."

'Preventing suicide is complicated ... it's a social problem'

In 2014, 65,000 people attempted to take their own life in Australia and suicide was the leading cause of death for people aged 15-44.

"Preventing suicide is complicated. It's not just a health problem, it's a social problem," Professor Christensen said.

"It rests on the capacity of communities to help, and the structure of how communities are.

"So, by putting all of these different strategies together, which range from individual interventions all the way through to population based interventions, we hope that the cumulative effect will be as we predict."



Ms Skehan said the strength of the program was that it could be tailored to any community.

"It's a whole-of-community approach, so what we will be looking at is any community members that may have been impacted by suicide in the past, people who may be at risk of suicide, so they may be living through current life challenges.

"It's also really building the capacity of both community and services to respond to people in times of distress."

NSW Mental Health Minister Pru Goward said the Government would monitor how the program worked in the four sites.

"We're keen to see where it works, where it doesn't, what strategies work better than others and how we can keep refining this," she said.

"We need to do this where we have got the ability to make a difference where we know we've got strong service organisations that need, of course, to be linked up."