Suicide Prevention
UNDERSTANDING & BUILDING RESILIENCE
A Suicide Prevention Project in the South West
On Friday September 11th, ICCWA was awarded the 2009 Healthy Communities LIFE Award for its contribution to suicide prevention within south west communities. Each year in conjunction with International World Suicide Prevention Day, Suicide Prevention Australia holds the national LIFE Awards in the recognition of outstanding contributions made to suicide prevention within Australia. Find out more>
To download or view the final reports click on the following:
FINAL REPORT: 15 June 2009>
Summary of Final Report / February 2007 – June 2009>
Evaluation of Phase 2 of Understanding & Building Resilience Project >
This project was supported by the National Suicide Prevention Strategy from the Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing.
Understanding & Building Resilience Project has been a successful model that has elicited widespread community engagement and participation from across all sectors. Local input was the key factor in the model’s success, with opportunities for this occurring during the action research phase and then sustained through the establishment and input of the local working groups. Consequently, Project objectives and community action plans were informed by a combination of suicide prevention and resilience research, and local experience and expertise.
Project Officers acted in many different roles as connectors, facilitators, trainers, awareness raisers, organisers, collaborators and drivers. A critical factor here was that the Project Officers developed or built on previous community connections, knowledge and networks in order to work with communities, working groups and across sectors.
A broad range of training and information sessions were provided to an equally broad range of target audiences, with sessions kept at low or no cost and provided locally to promote accessibility. This training was possible by being innovative and adapting new programs, working in partnerships to share resources and to promote what is already available and by capacity building of local support service providers and community members.
Future directions of this Project aim to sustain what has already been achieved and take a stronger focus on working with at risk target groups.
Outcomes
Local Working Groups, established in each of the six communities, utilised key objectives identified by the research to develop Community Action Plans. These plans highlighted areas of need and ways in which group members could work together toward reducing risk factors for suicide. As a result, strong partnerships have been formed within the local community and across the six participating communities. The Project provided opportunities for inter-sectoral collaboration, local partnerships and community engagement.
The Understanding & Building Resilience Project has highlighted the issue of suicide and promoted the importance of awareness, information and skills to be able to address this issue. This has been accomplished through the provision of education, training, the development of partnerships with local agencies to achieve outcomes for community members and collaborating to provide key community activities. Action plans included four key areas.
- Service Gaps and Access Issues. Working groups identified and prioritised issues and worked collaboratively to address service gaps and improve access to existing services. Strategies varied from lobbying Shires or service providers, writing letters of support for funding applications, to capacity building activities such as the provision of an advocacy workshop. Many successful outcomes occurred and are outlined in the Final Report. Ongoing discussions and advocacy continues to occur between services and key stakeholders as part of the role of the established interagency networks in the region.
-Connecting to Community. Working groups identified and supported many varied activities that provided opportunities for people to connect with their community and promoted social inclusion. These included: community forums and expos, such as the Rotary Community Mental Health Forum and Mental Health Week ; support for community programs and events; promotion of community education programs, such as LAMP Inc.’s psycho-education program and Disability Service Commission’s Demystifying Disabilities workshops; provision of Aboriginal cultural safety training; and promotion of Mentally Health WA’s Act-Belong-Commit message at community events.
- Referral, Networks and Help Seeking, to build community capacity for help seeking by increasing awareness and knowledge of referral pathways and support services. Varying strategies were employed to achieve outcomes including: use of local media to promote services; collaboration with local Business and Community Directories to include crisis and help lines and update support services; distribution of adapted, quality resources; community expos and forums; and promotion of inter-agency networking (three new networks initiated).
- Resilience Building through the provision of education, training and skill development to build the capacity of communities to recognise and respond appropriately to people at risk of suicide and to raise awareness of how to build resilience. Various packages which were made available by working in contracting training and/ or working in partnership with other organisations and community groups.
- MindFrame National Media Initiative stakeholder workshops (30 participants) and media briefings www.mindframe-media.info/
- “A Way Through” Interactive Community Information Sessions (633 participants) and workshops (68 participants) www.wisdominyourlife.com.au
- Gay and Lesbian Community Services Opening Closets workshop (80 participants) www.openingclosets.com
- Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Workshops (273 participants) www.mcsp.org.au
- Lifeline WA Livingworks education (54+ participants) www.lifelinewa.org.au
- Other community initiatives
Major Findings and Recommendations
The Understanding and Building Resilience Project model and the objectives can be adapted for use in other rural regions, provided that communities are in a fairly robust position to act.
The key elements of the Understanding and Building Resilience Project model include:
- A community consultation and action research phase;
- Establishment of local working groups or networks;
- A set of objectives that support suicide prevention and resilience building;
- Development of community action plans based on evidence, best practice and local input;
- Working in collaboration and partnerships with other agencies and across sectors (including communities)
- Use of a diverse range of quality training and capacity building programs provided locally and at low cost;
- Adaption and dissemination of well researched information resources;
- Project officers that can act as connectors, facilitators, organisers, trainers, community awareness raisers and drivers, and should have strong connections within the communities in which they are working.
Recommendations for future work of this Project include:
- A specific focus on targeting high risk groups: youth, Indigenous people; prisoners, recently released prisoners and those entering the court system; men.
- Continued support of Gatekeeper Instructors to achieve accreditation.
- Training and workforce support of local Aboriginal professionals/ paraprofessionals to provide culturally appropriate suicide prevention training at community level.
- Continue to work with community networks or working groups to review and progress action plans.
- Continue to sustain and advance work in collaboration and partnership across sectors.
- Provide Map of Loss and A Way Through training to other regions
- Seek opportunities to provide support and consultancy services to workers in other regions, who will be implementing similar models for suicide prevention/resilience building in their communities. It may be possible, for example for ICCWA to act as a “hub” and provide outreach, support and information to regions across WA.
- Continued funding of local project officers, to continue to assist local communities in implementing local suicide prevention strategies and building community resilience.
Acknowledgements
The strength and success of this project lies with the comprehensive consultation process and the engagement of community, and collaboration with the many agencies and service providers across the region. We would like to thank and acknowledge the collaborative work of the organisations listed below.
| Aboriginal Healing Project, Waratah | MATES Men’s Support Service |
| Bridgetown Family and Community Centre | Manjimup-Bridgetown Times |
| Bridgetown Men’s Shed and RSL | Manjimup Family Centre |
| Bunbury Mail | Manjimup Volunteer & Resource Centre |
| Bunbury Pathways | Mentally Healthy WA |
| Cancer Council WA | Mindframe Program |
| City of Bunbury | Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention |
| Collie Family Centre | Western Australian Police |
| Collie Mail | Red Cross |
| Office for Youth, Department for Communities WA | Rotary Clubs of Greater Bunbury Region |
| Department of Education and Training WA | Shires of Augusta-Margaret River, Busselton, Collie, Bridgetown-Greenbushes and Manjimup |
| Department of Veteran’s Affairs | South West Aboriginal Medical Service |
| Disability Services Commission | South West Community Drug Service Team |
| DOVES Domestic Violence Education & Support | South West Regional College of TAFE WA |
| Gay and Lesbian Community Services | South West VETLink |
| GP Downsouth Division of General Practice | Talison |
| Greater Bunbury Division of General Practice | Trinity Outreach Services True Colours Program |
| Heart Foundation WA | Val Lishman Health Research Foundation |
| LAMP Inc. | Western Australian Country Health Service – South West |
| Lifeline WA | Wisdom in Your Life – Map of Loss (Roslyn Snyder) |
We would also like to thank the following are members of the South West Reference Group that guided and supported this Project.
- Dr Beth Jackson – Project Officer, ICCWA
- Shaun Nannup – Project Officer, ICCWA
- Deborah Costello – CEO, ICCWA
- Kate Dodson – Warren Blackwood Student Services Manager, Department of Education and Training
- Dr Graham Fisher – Val Lishman Health Research Foundation
- Janelle Leiper – Health Advancement Coordinator, WA Country Health Service – South West (WACHS-SW)
- June Foulds – CEO, Greater Bunbury Division of General Practice
- Karen Hansen– GP Support Coordinator, GP downsouth Division of General Practice
- Julie Stone – A/Manager, Social and Emotional Team, South West Aboriginal Medical Service (SWAMS)
- Noel Wallam – Family Support Worker, South West Aboriginal Medical Service
- Rory Stemp – Mental Health Program Manager, WACHS-SW
- Tony Strang – Community Crime Prevention officer, South West Police
- Marina Johns – Project Coordinator, ICCWA
Resilience refers to a person’s “ability to bounce back or recover after adversity or hard times, and to be capable of building positively on these adversities” (Mission Australia Research and Social Policy, 2005). When a community is resilient, it can “respond to crises in ways that strengthen community bonds, resources, and the community’s capacity to cope” (Chenoweth & Stehlik cited in Healy, Hampshire & Ayres, 2003). Resilience is of great interest and relevance to suicide prevention and mental well being.
EMERGENCY CONTACTS
If you, or anyone you know is at risk of suicide, please contact one of the following help lines
South West 24 1800 555 336
Men’s Help Line 1300 78 99 78
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800
U&BR Project Team, ICCWA
Marina Johns
Based at Bridgetown District Hospital
Phone: 08 9782 1222 Email: marina.johns@health.wa.gov.au
Shelley O’Brien
Based at WACHS – South West , Busselton
Phone: 08 9754 0518 Email: shelley.o’brien@health.wa.gov.au