Suicide is the biggest killer among people between the ages of 15 and 44 and in rural and regional the rate is 3.7 times higher.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it’s an issue that’s getting worse.
The latest data from 2014 on causes of death shows the suicide rate went up by 199 from 1263 in 2013, more than were killed in car accidents or assaults.
The central west region in New South Wales loses a person nearly every day to suicide and Lily Wright, 19, could have been one of them.
Miss Wright fought a battle with depression a few years ago, and contemplated suicide.
“I had plans in place and I just felt like I didn't belong here anymore,” she said.
“When I first got depressed I was 16, so I was at that stage where I was rebelling against my parents and high school was getting to the point where it was the senior years, [and] you've got to do this, you've got to do that.
"I just broke down and pushed everyone away.”
She eventually reached out and sought help and treatment from Headspace in Cowra -a service that is so highly valued last year the community raised $50,000 for the organisation.
However, Headspace chief executive Chris Tanti has resigned over changes to the organisation's funding model which he says threaten the future of the organisation.
Government funding to services like Headspace has been frozen while the suicide rate continues to increase.
Under a new arrangement, the government will provide the same amount of funding, but instead of going through the Headspace head office it will be the Primary Healthcare Networks (PHN) that decide if and how Headspace funding will be doled out.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the audience for the ABC's Q & A program on Monday night the new arrangement would not decrease funding in the long-term.
“There are about 100 Headspace centres, the funding for them will be delivered," he said.
"They'll be directly accountable after two years to the Primary Health Networks. Their funding is secure and committed into the future.”
However he acknowledged the PHNs would have the power to cease funding an individual Headspace centre if it under performed.
“If a Primary Health Network wants to stop supporting a Headspace in its area, presumably because they feel it's not doing the job, they will have to give the Headspace Central the opportunity to rectify any problems,” he said.
At the launch of the Labor party campaign on Sunday, Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, promised continued funding for Headspace and more money for prevention.
“A new Labor government will start by providing $72 million for 12 regional suicide prevention projects," he said.
“Labor will therefore provide the funding to keep Headspace centres open in their 95 locations.
"We will invest $9 million as the foundation of a new National Suicide Prevention Fund, to break down social stigma, to light a path out of the dark places that some of our fellow Australians find themselves in.”
Miss Wright said she owed her life to Headspace.
“I'm grateful, and my parents are as well, because I think if I wasn't directed towards Headspace I wouldn't be here," she said.
"I'm now about to turn 20 and I have this entire life ahead of me.”
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