The Illawarra Shoalhaven Suicide Prevention Collaborative has released its first Progress Report, summing up a massive year in suicide prevention for the region.
The Collaborative took on the Black Dog Institute's LifeSpan project in 2017 - a new, evidence-based, integrated approach to suicide prevention. Through LifeSpan, the Collaborative has been working on implementing nine strategies with strong evidence for suicide prevention into one community-led approach.
This first Progress Report documents what has been achieved, highlights potential risks and takes stock of whether what the Collaborative are doing is working. It also provides people working in suicide prevention details on how their efforts fit within the 'bigger picture' of the Lifespan project.
Key highlights from the report include:
- by working together, three Collaborative member organisations have established a service that supports people after a suicide attempt, addressing a known gap in suicide prevention in our region
- general practices across the region are introducing universal mental health screening to their practices
- Year 9 students across the region will begin participating in the Youth Aware of Mental Health program, starting in Term 1 of 2018
- over 600 people have signed up to complete Question Persuade Refer (QPR) online training to learn how help prevent suicide
It has been a big year for the Collaborative and this is just the beginning. No doubt, 2018 will be even bigger!