Last Christmas, one of Australia’s major suicide prevention groups had a call from a very distressed suicidal man. The counsellor did his best to support him and arranged to keep in touch. But there was no answer to the counsellor’s follow up calls. Following the organisation’s duty of care rules, the counsellor made a call to NSW police, fearing the man was at imminent risk of harm.
The police reaction was shocking. “Is there a female partner who could be at risk? Is he likely to hurt her,” asked the police officer, whose immediate concern was not checking on the man in crisis but rather assessing the risk that the suicidal man could be violent.
Welcome to the latest triumph of feminist policy innovation.
