R U OK day

By Mike Searles*. AMIE Simpson is baking cookies in her kitchen to help raise awareness of suicide prevention. Twenty-nine year-old pastry chef Simpson, right, ...

Suicide is preventable and to help spread that message the annual R U OK? “My husband and I have private reasons for supporting the R U OK? The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that around nine lives are lost daily to suicide. The three most frequently occurring risk factors for women were: a personal history of self-harm (32.8 per cent of suicides), problems in a relationship with a spouse or partner (10.9 per cent), and disappearance or death of a family member (9.7 per cent). Risk factors for men include: a personal history of self-harm (19.5 per cent of suicides), disruption of family by separation and divorce (14 per cent), and problems in a relationship with a spouse or partner (11.8 per cent). Twenty-nine year-old pastry chef Simpson, right, owns Amie Jane’s Sweets & Treats and is baking special cookies and treats to help raise money for R U OK?