"You've got people asking, who's next?" That's the tragic predicament some Indigenous communities face as they endure what they're calling a suicide "crisis".

Key points: Suicide among Indigenous youth is now considered to be at "crisis" levels

Suicide among Indigenous youth is now considered to be at "crisis" levels Outreach workers say communities fear young people believe suicide to be "normal"

Outreach workers say communities fear young people believe suicide to be "normal" Experts want a review of spending and re-think on how support services are provided

It was a horror summer for Aboriginal children. In the midst of school holidays, eight ended their lives, not in an isolated cluster, but disparately in different parts of the country.

It's people like Megan Krakouer who sit with the families left behind and help them pick up the pieces.

In her role with the Indigenous Critical Response Service, she provides 24-hour support to dozens of grieving families who have lost a child to suicide.

Ms Krakouer says the biggest challenge communities face is the idea among Indigenous young people that suicide is normal.

"That's really sad, when we have our young people who think the only solution is through suicide," she said.

The problem has been brewing over the last decade, with the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ending their lives steadily on the rise.

The problem is worse still among Indigenous young people, particularly among Aboriginal women.

Indigenous children make up less than 5 per cent of the youth population, but nationally account for 25 per cent of child suicides — in some states that number is upwards of 60 per cent.

Ms Krakouer meets with parents like Grace Cockie, who say they are still looking for answers.

Grace's daughter, Linda Cockie, is one of the faces behind the numbers. A 16-year-old girl who ended her life in the first few months of her senior schooling.

Nearly a year on, Ms Cockie wants to tell the story of Linda's death to draw attention to problems in her community.

She said no-one in the family had observed signs of trouble or suicidal thoughts in the lead-up to Linda's death.

"It's like when she died, a part of me died too … it's tough and it's always going to be tough," her mother, Ms Cockie, said.

Linda had a challenging childhood and she had been drinking in the hours before her death.

Grace Cockie lost her daughter Linda to suicide. ( ABC News: Isabella Higgins )

Linda Cockie took her own life when she was 16 years old. ( Supplied: Grace Cockie )

"She'd been drinking a lot for a 16-year-old [that night] … drugs and alcohol — it's a problem for our young people."

At times, the family struggled to find stable housing and there were issues with domestic violence and addiction in the home, but Ms Cockie thought her daughter was doing well.

"She went to four different high schools, even when I was in rehab, [she] kept on going to school because she was a good student," she said.

"The four principals from her high schools all came to her funeral too."

The teenager didn't seek help from a mainstream service provider leading up to her death. It's been a common finding that Indigenous children are not likely to do so.

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'As a country, we're not fully aware of how to deal with this'

Suicide rates in remote communities, particularly the Kimberley, have been well publicised, but by other measures the majority of suicides actually occur in cities and towns.

"Because of population size, the rates are higher in those [remote] areas. [In] actual numbers there are more deaths by suicides in urban areas," Adele Cox, chief of the National Indigenous Critical Response Service (NICRS), said.

"We're going through a horrible time in Western Australia at the moment, where in Perth metro there's been a huge increase in the number of suicides. Something is going on.

"Suicide is a problem everywhere no matter where we are geographically.

"Why aren't we doing something? Why aren't we being accountable?

"It is a crisis. There is no other way to put it."

There is another worrying trend the service has observed around the country.

"We're actually now seeing the number of completed suicides by young women in our communities on the increase," Ms Cox said.

"I don't think, as a country, we're fully aware of how to deal with this because we've always been on the lookout for young men [who typically have higher suicide rates]."

Linda's sister, June, will grow up without her oldest sibling. ( ABC News: Isabella Higgins )

'Let's not let this be another report that sits on the shelf'

The factors that can cause suicide are incredibly complex and in a country as big as Australia, and among a population as diverse as Indigenous Australians, it is impossible to point to a single cause.

But experts and major inquiries point to a number of key factors as contributors; intergenerational trauma, social disadvantage and racism.

"The biggest challenge we have is the idea of suicide being normal," Ms Cox said.

"Unfortunately we have a lot of our young people who see suicide as an option.

"We need to reverse that psyche so that suicide never becomes an option. How do we remove it from our vocabulary?"

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Just last week, a major coronial inquest into a 2016 youth suicide cluster in the Kimberley, in remote Western Australia, handed down 42 recommendations aimed at addressing some of the issues.

It found the children were living in homes shaped by intergenerational trauma and poverty and many were exposed to alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

WA coroner Ros Fogliani said it was "profoundly tragic, individually and collectively", and it was disappointing similar recommendations from an inquest 10 years earlier had not been acted on.

"Let's not let this be another report that sits on the shelf. These are not just our kids, they are our nation's kids and something needs to be done," Ms Cox said.

In the past decade, there have been a number of major inquiries that have handed down hundreds of recommendations about how to turn the suicide rate around, but still the problem remains.

Megan Krakouer at an outreach visit with Amber Cox, who lost her partner to suicide last year. ( ABC News: Isabella Higgins )

Ms Krakouer says in her outreach work she sees many people struggling to put food on the table.

"One of the things I'm finding from family to family is that poverty is the underlying issue, and then underneath that you've got the other issues: children being taken away, sexual abuse," she said.

"Culture is really important, but culture is just one part of it. It's an identity. And you need outreach support services, that's the missing link.

"These are some of the issues we need to dive into if we're ever going to find a solution."

Racism and discrimination 'a problem'

There is now a record level of government funding going into suicide prevention and mental health, but it has done little to curb the rates of death in the community.

Experts are now suggesting it is time for a major re-think about how services are provided to Indigenous Australians, as well as a review of current spending.

"It may be time to consider whether the services themselves need to be co-designed in a completely different way that recognises, at a foundational level, the need for a more collective and inclusive approach towards cultural healing for Aboriginal communities," Coroner Fogliani said.

Ms Cox also said the recipients of current funding needed to be looked at.

"I think a review of where the money is going [is needed] and a good hard look at the types of programs that are being resourced, and some stronger accountability measures [are needed]," she said.

She also urged governments to properly invest in broader support services that ensured children and adults were living happy and healthy lives, rather than just suicide-specific services.

"There's a lot of factors … issues around not having stable housing, jobs, people not finding employment," she said.

"Education … primary health needs … and racism and discrimination — we need to acknowledge they are problems."

This week, the 11th Closing the Gap report card revealed that Indigenous Australians still do not have equal health, education and employment outcomes, despite a decade-long national effort to improve things.

On one of her home visits, Ms Krakouer meets with Amber Cox, 26, and her two friends, Moana Ransfield, 25, and Kaea O'Connell, 24, all whom have been touched by suicide.

In their young lives, they have lost a partner, a father, best friends, cousins, uncles and aunts to suicide.

"I don't think there's even a way to describe it when you go through something like that," Ms Cox said.

When asked if she has food in the fridge, she replies: "We've got none, barely none … some days I don't know how we get by."

Amber Cox, 26, Moana Ransfield, 25, and Kaea O'Connell, 24, who've all been impacted by suicide, write a message of solidarity on their hands to encourage each other to keep going. ( ABC News: Isabella Higgins )

Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt said the Federal Government was limited in what it could do stop the tragic loss of life.

"Governments can facilitate … they should be able to orchestrate key policy decisions, but let the energy of response come from the community level," he said.

Mr Wyatt said it was time funded organisations stepped up and changed the way they were doing things.

"I feel frustrated there are organisations who are funded on many levels, who are resourced, and yet when we tackle some of these matters their first reaction is: 'We need additional money'," he said.

He said every Australian could play a role in preventing suicide, by supporting those around them.

"We should be able to ask someone, 'Are you OK?', 'Are you not happy with your life?' You get a sense when people withdraw," Mr Wyatt said.

One thing that keeps Ms Krakouer going in her very difficult day job, is that since the NCIRS was established, there have been no further suicides among any of the families.

"I meet really lovely people … and we've had no suicides … that keeps me going," she said.