I have just completed a thesis exploring the risk for suicide of a matched
sample of 57 gay and 54 straight Australian males aged 18-24. Similar to
previous research I found the rate of suicidal behaviour among gay youth to
be significantly higher than straight youth (summary of findings are below).


I also work on a Reach Out! which is the world's first online suicide
prevention service (www.reachout.asn.au). The service has been running for
about 12 months and currently averages around 2000 users a week. We have
been well received by young people with many more requesting that we
establish an online counselling service. Before we embark on this we would
like to get in contact with other online organisations who offer an
interactive service so we can plan for costs and legal contingencies.

I will be travelling to The US and England between the 15th November and 26
January and would be interested in meeting people involved in online health
promotion, particularly organisations which provide an interactive service
where users can email questions around health issues. I would also be
interested in meeting people researching the area of gay youth health.

Should anyone be interested in meeting up or know anyone worth contacting I
can be reached on [log in to unmask]


Regards,


Jonathan Nicholas



Main Findings

Gay youth were 3.7 times more likely to attempt suicide with 62.5% of gay
attempters requiring medical attention after the attempt

On measures of lifetime suicidal ideation gay identified males were
significantly (p=0.00) more likely than straight identified males to:
1) think there was no point to living,
2) have frequent suicidal thoughts
3) have intrusive suicidal thoughts
4) think about how they would kill themselves
5) have access to the chosen means to kill themselves

Suicidal ideation for the whole sample was predicted by:
                1)      Level of perceived paternal support
                2)      A subjective perception at one time that they
suffered from  a mental disorder;
                3)      Having been sexually assaulted.

The significant predictors of suicidal ideation in the gay sub-sample were:
                1)      Not having told the first person that realised they
were gay about their orientation;
                2)      Level of perceived paternal support.

Gay attempters versus non-attempters were more likely to:
*       perceive low levels of paternal support
*       cope poorly at the end of a relationship
*       experience verbal violence from parents and peers at school;
physical violence from their father and be sexually assaulted
*       engage in commercial sex
*       develop same-gender attractions and self-identify as gay at a
younger age
*       have more poor relationships and a greater number of people cut
contact after coming out