Specialist Homelessness Services: feature analysis:

Children with a history of specialist homelessness services support who have died

Web article

Last updated: 26 Aug 2025

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2025) Children with a history of specialist homelessness services support who have died , AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 23 June 2026.

Clients

Services

Specialist homelessness services and income support among young people

Outcomes

Children with a history of specialist homelessness services support who have died This page
People receiving specialist homelessness services support in the last year of life
People who received specialist homelessness services and alcohol and other drug treatment services who have died
People with a history of specialist homelessness services support who have died

Access to stable housing is essential for the health and wellbeing of children (Murran and Brady 2023). Homelessness can impact a child’s physical and psychological health, and overall risk of injury, disease and premature death, making children at risk of homelessness or experiencing homelessness some of Australia’s most vulnerable (Flatau et al. 2016; Grattan et al. 2021). Understanding the scale and causes of deaths among children who have received specialist homelessness services (SHS) in their lifetime can provide information to improve prevention efforts and guide policy making.

For more background information and associated research see Children and young clients.

Analyses presented in this article are based on data from the NACS linked data set.

Definition and data quality issues Expand

Defining children who received SHS support who have died

Children aged 1 or older and less than 18 when they died who had received SHS support since July 2011 at any time in their life are described in the following article.

Analysis coverage for children with a history of SHS support who died

The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) began in July 2011. Each birth year since 1995 are included in the analysis, however, the number of years that children in each birth year could have received SHS support varies, as illustrated below (Figure 1). That is, depending on their birth month, children born in 1995 can only have received SHS and died at age 17. By way of example, contrast this with:

children born in 2006 who could have received support throughout the ages 6–17
children born in 2014 who could have received support throughout their entire life.

No attempt has been made to correct for the varied amount of time children could have received support.

Figure 1: Analysis coverage for children with a history of SHS support who died

At the time of analysis, the cause of death information included in the National Death Index database was considered final for deaths registered prior to 2021, revised for deaths registered in 2021 and preliminary for deaths registered in 2022 and 2023. Preliminary data are subject to further revision.

For help or support

The AIHW respectfully acknowledges the children who have died who are described in this article.

The material presented below may be distressing. Support is available via the following:

Ask Izzy for connections to support services
Crisis and support services for a comprehensive list of organisations providing support.

Children with a history of SHS support who have died

Throughout the period 2012–13 to 2022–23, around 520 children died who had received SHS support at any time in their life.

Children who had received SHS support accounted for 1 in 13 deaths among children in Australia over the 2012–13 to 2022–23 period (Supplementary table 1).

As a proportion of all child deaths annually, children who had received SHS support increased from 2.6% of all children who died in 2012–13 to 7.8% in 2017–18, peaking at 12% in 2021–22, before decreasing to 9.9% in 2022–23 (Figure 2). The increased proportion in later years is in part explained by data coverage issues in the early years of the data collection (up to 2016–17), and an increasing amount of possible time children may have received SHS support since July 2011. See analysis coverage for deaths among children who received SHS support.

Age at death

Throughout 2012–13 to 2022–23, around 2 in 5 (43%) deaths in children who received SHS support at any time in their life, were aged 1–11 years, 1 in 4 (24%) were aged 12–15 and 1 in 3 (33%) were aged 16–17.

In 2022–23, deaths among children who received SHS support at any time in their life accounted for (Figure 2):

8.1% of all child deaths aged 1–11
9.1% of all child deaths aged 12–15
15% of all child deaths aged 16–17.

Figure 2: Deaths among children who received SHS support (1–17), by age group, 2017–18 to 2022–23

Financial year	1–11	12–15	16–17	1–17 (Total)
2017–18	6.8%	3.8%	14%	7.8%
2018–19	6.9%	8.2%	9.4%	7.8%
2019–20	7.4%	12%	12%	9.6%
2020–21	9.6%	9.8%	11%	10%
2021–22	7.7%	16%	18%	12%
2022–23	8.1%	9.1%	15%	9.9%

_{Note: At the time of analyses, the cause of death information included in the National Death Index database was considered final for deaths registered prior to 2021, revised for deaths registered in 2021 and preliminary for deaths registered in 2022 and 2023. Preliminary data are subject to further revision.}

Source: Supplementary table 1.

SHS support prior to death

Of the children who received SHS support and died throughout 2012–13 to 2022–23 (Supplementary table 2, Figure 3):

2 in 5 (40% or 212) received SHS support in the last year of life (support was ongoing at the time of death or up to 12 months since support ended); 49 (9.3%) children were in ongoing support and 163 (31%) received support in the last 12 months of life
About 2 in 5 (41% or 217) children ceased receiving SHS support more than 2 years prior to death
Children aged 1–11 were more likely to have received SHS support in the last year of life (ongoing or up to 12 months) (45% or 102 children) compared with children aged 12–15 (28% or 35 children) and children aged 16–17 (44% or 75 children). In part this is because for younger children there is a greater possibility that SHS have been provided for most of their lifespan (since July 2011). See analysis coverage for deaths among children who received SHS support.

Among the 126 deaths in children aged 12–15 years who received SHS support, over half (51%) of deaths occurred more than 2 years since last they received SHS support.

Figure 3: Deaths among children who received SHS support (1–17), by time since last SHS support, 2012–13 to 2022–23

Age group	Ongoing	Up to 12 months	1–2 years	More than 2 years
1–11 years	17 deaths	85 deaths	43 deaths	82 deaths
12–15 years	12 deaths	23 deaths	27 deaths	64 deaths
16–17 years	20 deaths	55 deaths	25 deaths	71 deaths
Total (1–17 years)	49 deaths	163 deaths	95 deaths	217 deaths

Source: Supplementary table 2.

Underlying cause of death

Throughout the period 2012–13 to 2022–23, suicide and transport accidents were the most common causes of death in children with a history of SHS support.

External causes of death, such a suicide, transport accidents and assault, were common causes of death among children with a history of SHS support.

Children aged 1–11

Among children aged 1–11 who received SHS support (Figure 4):

Land transport accidents (37 children); certain conditions originating in the perinatal period, congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (23 children); and assault (18 children) were the most common causes of death, accounting for one third (34% or 78 children) of deaths
Land transport accidents was the underlying cause of death 1 in 6 (16%) deaths and these accounted for 8.6% of all land transport accident deaths in children aged 1–11 nationally
Assault was the underlying cause of death 1 in 13 (7.9%) deaths and these accounted for 15% of all assault deaths in children aged 1–11 nationally.

Children aged 12–15

Among children aged 12–15 who received SHS support (Figure 4):

Suicide (38 children), land transport accidents (36 children) and accidental poisoning (9 children) were the three most common causes of death, accounting for two thirds (66%) of deaths.

Children aged 16–17

Among children aged 16–17 who received SHS support (Figure 4):

Suicide (75 children), land transport accidents (32 children) and assault (9 children) were the three most common causes of death, accounting for over two thirds (68%) of deaths
Suicide accounted for over 2 in 5 deaths (44% or 75 children) and 13% of all suicides among children aged 16–17 nationally
Land transport accidents accounted for almost one fifth (19% or 32 children) of deaths, and 8.6% of all land transport accident deaths in children aged 16–17 nationally
Assault accounted for 1 in 19 deaths (5.3% or 9 children), and nearly one quarter (23%) of all assault deaths in children aged 16–17 nationally.

Figure 4: Deaths among children who received SHS support (1–17), by age group and top 3 underlying causes of death, 2012–13 to 2022–23

Age at death	Land transport accidents	Conditions originating in the perinatal period, congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities	Assault	Suicide	Accidental poisoning
1–11 years	16%	10%	7.9%	. .	. .
12–15 years	29%	. .	. .	30%	7.1%
16–17 years	19%	. .	5.3%	44%	. .

Source: Supplementary table 3.

References Expand

Flatau P, Thielking M, MacKenzie D, Steen A, Bauskis A and Nolan K (2016) The Cost of Youth Homelessness in Australia, Centre for Social Impact: Crawley.

Grattan R, Tryon V, Lara N, Gabrielian S, Melnikow J, Niendam T (2021) Risk and Resilience Factors for Youth Homelessness in Western Countries: A Systematic Review, American Psychiatric Association, Psychiatric Services In Advance, Published Online: 29 July 2021.

Murran S and Brady E (2023) ‘How does family homelessness impact on children's development? A critical review of the literature’, Child & Family Social Work, 28(2), 360–371.

Children with a history of specialist homelessness services support who have died

Citation