did not come across as depressed and in fact was almost always jolly
pelican,
these are the actual suicides but what about the thousands who kill themselves gradually with drinking & smoking & those who gradually die earlier than they were programmed to because of authority induced stress ?
If you want to reduce suicide you'll need to reduce greed & egoism in authority. If we had education in Australia it would also help greatly. There are simply too many influences on anyone's life brought on by those around them who then say how sad.

Pelican, lots of work has been done. A common thread is that men see suicide as an active approach to a solution, not a passive copout. They know there's a problem, they try to fix it but they find that it is intractable because of the social pressures on them, so they choose to remove themselves rather than make those around them suffer. By impugning the "courage" of men who don't seek help, the Man Therapy" business has got the wrong end of the stick. What they need to know is that a solution for the problem that they are trying to solve exists. The help that is offered is not a solution, it's a coat of paint over a cracks in the facade.

Women's suicidality is more often a plea for help, which reflects the socio-biological fact that our species has a protective response to women in danger. It can be a passive-aggressive act too "see, you didn't do your job properly".

The help they receive is also not a solution, it's just an anodyne. It satisfies their need for social attention and it gives them pills to make them less acutely feel the pressure that drove them to ask for help, but it doesn't remove those pressures.

We need to stop pretending that we can put square pegs in round holes without damaging something.

talking to men who have had suicidal thoughts.
pelican,
I doubt very much if any man would ever tell you what suicide thoughts they have/had. A few attention seeking whimps probably make a big song & dance of it but I can't see a man disclosing such info.
I believe that there are simply way too many mindless rules & regulations imposed on us every time we take a breath. Real men are demeaned by having to bow to asexuals by Law.
It's the Laws which are ruining our society. We desperately need a review & a referendum.
Only then can people be people again.

The depressed are not likely to seek help. Think about the cruel reality of depression. Maybe see one of the many videos on-line by (say) youths suffering from depression. Other age groups don't make many videos of their pain.

They need caring people to be with them. Just be there for them. Not to jolly them up or attempt to solve their 'problem', that doesn't work. They need professional help, best where the home can be visited.

@ $200 a session, pay up-front and some refundable later, how can many afford it, even if the difficulty of getting the person to the professional is overcome?

One simple way of getting a better bang from the taxpayers' bucks spent on health and welfare would be to treat people as people. It is time that the public realised the expensive stupidity, duplication and waste from splitting health and other services for woman, special groups and so on. That only suits some professionals and bureaucrats who have careers in the victim industry and hanging from the guvvy teat. But otherwise it sets up competition for resources, fights over demarcations and so on.

Depression - or melancholy - has been with us for a long time. I surmise that our present system/culture perhaps disposes us to it.

Here's Robert Burton's contribution to the subject from 1621.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Melancholy

The antidote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izaak_Walton#The_Compleat_Angler

Your frivolous dismissal of depression as something that can be fixed if only the person could get off his behind and do something is precisely the sort of attitude that beyondblue, the Black Dog Institute and others are trying to counteract.

There is a vast difference between grief and feeling a bit down, and depression.

For those who are interested,
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/8E0E3BC67E3962AFCA25712B0080235F/$File/nhpa2.pdf