R U OK has launched a national campaign aimed at reducing suicide rates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, after at least 24 young Indigenous people took their own lives this year.

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Three of those deaths were 12-year-old children, according to the National Indigenous Critical Response Service which works with First Nations communities to provide support during these events.

The deaths by suicide this year have occurred disparately all over the country which experts are calling a national crisis.

Yupungathi and Meriam woman Dr Vanessa Lee is the Director of Suicide Prevention Australia and has worked closely with R U OK? to develop the campaign.

She told Hack it will be one of the first to focus on suicide prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with an aim to help people start conversations and support each other.

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Whatsapp R U OK? has created a campaign targeting the high rates of Indigenous youth suicide in Australia.

"The recent prevalence of deaths this year highlights the hopelessness and that inability for young people to express themselves and tell us what they're feeling," she said.

"We're not hearing them, we're not listening, something's not right.

"We're seeing this discrimination, racism and bullying of Indigenous people... that needs to stop because young people aren't coping and don't know how to stop these bullies and this racism embedded into our society."

The campaign includes two Community Service Advertisements and a handbook - all of which were created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experts and filmmakers.

The resources aim to teach people to check in with friends and family who may be struggling mentally and what to do if they're need help.

Vast majority of young Indigenous people who died by suicide this year were living in poverty

While it's impossible to highlight a single cause for these alarming rates of suicide and self harm, experts have said numerous factors including poverty, racism, and trauma are leading contributors.

Gerry Georgatos from the National Indigenous Critical Response Service (NICRS) told Hack poverty has been a driving force in nearly all of the Indigenous deaths by suicide this year.

He welcomed the R U OK? campaign but said living conditions in Indigenous communities also needed improvement in order to prevent further deaths.

"Nearly 100 per cent of suicides of First Nations peoples are those living under the poverty line and the deeper the poverty the higher the rates," he said.

"What we need is outreach services which can respond 24/7.

What we need is our governments to prioritise the Indigenous suicide prevention space with outreach, intensive psychosocial support, helping people improve their life circumstances... and early intervention.

This year's Closing the Gap report card found Indigenous Australians still have lower health, education and employment outcomes, despite a decade-long campaign.

In February, a major coronial inquest also found intergenerational trauma and poverty led to a cluster of youth suicides in the Kimberley in 2016.

Calls for funding for Indigenous run organisations

Dr Vanessa Lee said although there's a record level of government funding into suicide prevention and mental health for the whole population, Indigenous run services aren't being prioritised.

She also said evidence based research should influence where this funding shoudl go.

"The government is trying and they throw a lot of funding into this space but it's in the wrong arena," she said.

"They keep giving funding to non-Indigenous organisations without any accountability because if that was working, we wouldn't see an increase in suicide. That's as simple as you can get.

"The funding needs to go to Aboriginal controlled organisations because they need to understand the culture."

In a statement to Hack, a spokesman for Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said the Government was making significant investments into this space.

"Every suicide is a tragedy and I am deeply saddened by every suicide episode and am especially aware that the effect of these tragedies are often significantly more pronounced in tight knit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities," he said.

"The Australian Government is making record investments in mental health and suicide prevention services specifically for Indigenous Australians."

He specified millions of dollars being invested in Primary Health Networks, suicide prevention trial sites, research, the NICRS, and mental health first aid training in communities.