Town of Bassendean Councillor Sarah Quinton, who lost her brother to suicide, said the council and the community were working on reducing the rate especially after two deaths in particular sent shockwaves through the close-knit suburb over the last few years. One involved a father with children at a local school, another a 13-year-old boy. "Having lost a brother to suicide myself, once I came onto council, I wanted to make sure that there was something I could do with the position I have," Ms Quinton said. "On the back of those [recent suicides], the community has rallied and through the council we've established two mental health programs in response to those." Ms Quinton said local sporting clubs were banding together to provide free mental health first aid training for coaches and parents with financial support of council.

The Town of Bassendean was also helping Bassendean Primary School's P&C set up a local chapter of the Fathering Project, which aims to build relationships between dads and their children, but also within the community. "After the suicide of one of our dads, the school community was in shock," P&C president Jeanette Maddison said. "Obviously we rallied around the family, they had people helping them with the day-to-day stuff, but later on you can look back at things like the Fathering Program and think, well this could be beneficial." Ms Maddison said the program could save lives.

"I thought there might have been a different result for this man if he'd been more involved in the school community," she said. "I just want this to have to happen again, not in our community. "Obviously mental health issues are at the forefront, and anything that can bring the community together, it's about having a community and a network. "If you have dads getting together, they can keep an eye out for each other, and keep an eye out for their kids." Dr John McAuliffe, who is a mental health advocate who practiced as a GP in Bassendean for many years, said he suspected the high rate was related to the extent of social disadvantage in the suburb.

He said fly-in, fly-out work was also a massive problem, with a high number of mine workers living in the Bassendean area and suicide considered "rampant" in FIFO work camps in the North West. "Wherever there's a high proportion of fly-in, fly-out workers, then they're at a very high risk of suicide," he said. "But then there's areas that are socially disadvantaged, as well, there's marginalised people there". The Town of Bassendean's Sarah Quinton (far right) with fellow councillors supporting Lifeline. Ms Quinton said she wanted to improve her community's family and child services in response to the tragedies.

"Our child health centre is 60-years-old and often closed up, we don't have a playgroup space, we don't have any good playgrounds," she said. "For all of the research, we know if a community can provide those services for children aged zero to five, that children's health and wellbeing is much more resilient as they go into older years. "The more people started dying, the more I started I thinking we were going about this the wrong way. "We've got to go all the way back to the very beginning." Mental Health Commissioner Timothy Marney said suicide was a complex issue with many factors surrounding the why and the how.

"Tragically, on average, each day around one person loses their life to suicide in Western Australia," he said. "It affects families, friends, colleagues and communities. "The Mental Health Commission is actively working to address this issue through implementation of the statewide suicide prevention strategy, Suicide Prevention 2020: Together we can save lives. Loading "Last year, the state government launched the statewide Think Mental Health campaign which is part of a comprehensive approach in Western Australia that aims to build mental health and wellbeing, increase help seeking, and reduce mental health issues with a view to reducing WA's suicide rate.