THE Mount Isa community has rallied in response to the high number of suicides in the city after another person ended their life yesterday.
Since October 2010 about 11 people are believed to have committed suicide, one as young as 15.
While Queensland Health would not confirm the number of suicides for fear of upsetting the family of the victims, several mental health service providers have acknowledged the issue as a great concern.
Already a Mount Isa Suicide Prevention Working Group has been set up, an education program on youth suicide is being developed and a TAFE program has been established to address mental health issues.
A music event has also been organised for this Saturday to raise funds for the suicide prevention education program which is in its infancy after it was conceived by Vicki Prospero following her son Izac Marquez's suicide in April.
She said while the Izac's Last Wish education program had not been created, the awareness campaign had begun.
"It takes months to get an education program set up, so we're just getting information out there and talking to the kids it's affecting," she said.
"I've already got pamphlets and material from Beyond Blue and the National Drugs Campaign that I'll be handing out at the fundraiser."
Mrs Prospero said the money raised from the event would go towards purchasing wristbands with Izac's Last Wish written on them and the contact number for Kids Helpline.
"It's so that if the kids are wearing them, get depressed and put their head in their hands they'll see the number for Kids Helpline and hopefully call it before they do something silly."
Another mother who knows what it's like to lose a child, Deb Rysanek, encouraged families to talk about their loss.
She and other families established Safe Hands, formerly the Surviving the loss of a Child Group, after her son Chris died in floodwaters at the Twenty-third Avenue Crossing in 2009.
"Life after Chris died was a blur but you just take it one step at a time," she said.
"You have to continue to live for the living. I know it's different for every family but for me talking with people who had been through what I had helped me because they understood. It won't ever heal the gaping hole in my chest, but it makes it a little less jagged."
Already two parents who have lost children to suicide have taken part in the Safe Hands group, but Mrs Rysanek said she wanted to extend the invitation to more families.
"It's just lunch and we talk," she said.
"We might not even talk about the children we've lost, but we know that we understand what each person has been through."
Safe Hands meets at the Tram Stop Coffee Shop at 12.30pm on the last Saturday of the month.
The Stack City Slam event is on at the PCYC Saturday night from 7.30pm. Entry costs $5 and all funds raise will go towards the Izac's Last Wish program to educate youth about suicide and drugs.
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