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Three-year-olds in childcare and students from preschools will soon receive suicide talks from Beyond Blue.

The Daily Mail reports, while children as young as three won’t necessarily be hearing the term ‘suicide’ they will have discussions around ‘not wanting to be here’ or ‘wanting to die.’

The idea, which is part of a $53 million Mental Health in Education program, will be released by the Turnbull government on Thursday.

As the nation’s suicide and childhood mental health crisis soars The Mercury reports this will be a way to prevent the ‘contagion’ from becoming an epidemic.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics between 2011 and 2015 a total of 89 children aged 5 to 14 years committed suicide.

Louise Davis, clinical practice manager at Kids Helpline, said the service had received calls from kids as young as eight contemplating suicide.

While she does agree that using the term suicide is too strong for three-year-olds there should be a discussion about feelings and being open about seeking help.

‘We don’t want to scare young children, but certainly we want the message for them to be that if they are feeling anything — whether it is not wanting to be here or sadness that they can discuss that.’

The program, which will be run by Beyond Blue, will be announced by Health Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday who will inform teachers from childcare through to Year 12 that extra mental health training will be provided in their tertiary education courses.

It will begin early next year with two-thirds of all schools to be involved — 2000 Early Learning Services and 6000 schools — by June 2019.

To talk to someone about suicide please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.

Do you support this initiative or do you think this age is too young and impressionable?

Share your comments below.

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  • wow this is extreme and why can’t kids just be kids!

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  • I am sure a 3 year old would not be able to understand what this topic is about.
    I really feel they are starting to teach children about this at too young an age.

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  • I know that they want to have these talks with kids before they reach the point of thinking about ending their lives but 3 years old seems over the top to me. Honestly has anyone even heard of a 3 year deciding life is not worth live and ending their own life? I 3 year doesnt need to be face with these horrors at all.

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  • A 3yo shouldn’t understand death enough to even consider wanting to die. By exposing them to these talks you’re not only going to scare the crap out of them, you’re letting them know that suicide is a thing. If they don’t know you can want to do they can’t want to die. No one has the right to educate my child on matters like this without my consent. They are destroying childhood. Ignorance is bliss and they’re taking this away. This is too heavy before high school. I only knew what suicide was before high school because I lnew an adult who shot themselves. My ex’s son used to cry himself to sleep at night and have nightmares about dying until he was 10 because his Sunday School talked about heaven. What would these talks have done to a sensitive kid like this?

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  • Yes I think it’s good to teach kids from an early age that talking about our sad feelings is good and that there are many people walking around feeling sad and alone and that together we can help.
    My 12 year old daughter had just this week a class mate attempting to commit suicide, so we took that situation to talk lengthly about this topic. My daughter has been reaching out to the girl and they are in ongoing conversations, which is good but also heavy for her.

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  • I think 3 is too young to talk specifically about suicide. But yes the need to drum it into kids early that its ok to need to talk to someone when you aren’t coping.

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  • It’s such an important subject. I think it’s very good to talk about suicide from an early age. I’m sure the talk will be customized to the age of the kids addressed.

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