A man who has lost family members to suicide says governments need to be held to account over high suicide rates among Aboriginal people.

The Indigenous suicide rate is about double that of other Australians.

Tauto Sansbury has lost nephews, nieces and an uncle to suicide.

He has been the keynote speaker at a Uniting Church forum held in Adelaide to discuss suicide.

Mr Sansbury says there is too great a focus on dealing with mental health issues and other contributing factors deserve more attention.

"Contributing factors is loss of land, loss of culture, loss of Aboriginal identity," he said.

"[Also] continuing high incarceration of young Aboriginal kids and adult Aboriginal people."

Sarah Williamson from the Uniting Church said suicide could prove particularly hard to address in Aboriginal communities because of cultural considerations in speaking about death.

"Our suicide toll is much higher than the road toll each year, we're losing so many lives for people who feel that they have no other options, that there's no hope," she said.

"If we don't start addressing it, I can't see that it's going to get any better."

South Australia's Public Advocate John Brayley says Aboriginal people are missing out on early treatment of mental health problems because the services available to them are culturally inappropriate.

"If Aboriginal people go to them, it's often when things have become very severe and the opportunity for early treatment and care has been missed," he said.

Dr Brayley wants an audit of suicide prevention and mental health programs in South Australia to determine their effectiveness for Aboriginal people.

"There is a particular concern that Aboriginal communities may not have equity of access to the same services that the rest of the community might have so, while there are broader gaps for the whole community, I think the audit of what is happening is more important for services for Aboriginal people," he said.