Manual of Resources for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention

Communities

Feeling Deadly, Working Deadly

This toolkit, designed to support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alcohol and other drugs workforce, may also be valuable for mainstream workers supporting Indigenous clients with AOD and social and emotional wellbeing issues. It addresses issues including:

Heavy work demands
Defining roles and boundaries
Role stigmatisation
Translating mainstream work practices to ensure they are culturally sensitive
A lack of cultural understanding and support
Geographical isolation.
The toolkit comprises workbooks, case studies and a discussion guide as well a collection of fact sheets for supervisors to support their teams:

The complex personal lives of Indigenous AOD workers

Indigenous ways of working

Rewarding workers

Mentoring

Recruiting and retaining workers

Clinical supervision

Developing teams.

And fact sheets for workers to prevent stress and burnout:

Worker wellbeing – A Guide For Workers

Mentoring – A Guide For Workers

Clinical Supervision – A Guide For Workers

Goal setting – A Guide For Workers.

Source: NCETA

Be You Suicide Prevention Toolkit

The toolkit was intended for use to support suicide prevention and postvention responses in schools. It includes fact sheets to help teachers respond to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, that may also be valuable to other service providers:

Grief: how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people might respond to suicide
Remembering a young person: memorials and important events in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
Suicide in schools: information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
Self-care for school staff working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in remote areas
Suicide contagion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people
Source: beyondblue

Deliberate Self Harm and Suicidal Behaviour

This clinical protocol aims to reduce deliberate self-harm and suicidal behaviour by ensuring that people at risk are able to access consistent levels of support across the Kimberley, including:

Appropriate screening and assessment
Effective follow-up and safety planning.
The protocol recognises the role in suicide and self-harm of historical and current trauma, grief and loss, racism, child abuse and neglect, cultural breakdown, family and domestic violence, homelessness, poverty and sexual assault.

It provides additional guidance on drug or alcohol dependence, acknowledging the complexities of supporting Indigenous people who experience these issues after an episode of self-harm.

Source: Kimberley Aboriginal Health Planning Forum

Journey Home

Video discussion of how to support the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people involved in the criminal justice system, based on the Journey Home program from Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS) in South Australia, featuring:

– Jamie Sorby – Kamileroi woman, Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing worker

– Sharmaine Williams – Bidjara Gunggari woman, Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing worker

– Curtis Falla – Kaurna Narungga man, Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing worker

– Marshall Watson – Noongar man, Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist

Source: Orygen Youth Health

A Cultural Security Framework for Kimberley Mental Health/Social and Emotional Well-being and Alcohol and Other Drug Services

This framework supports Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations to improve their cultural security, both for employees and for clients/patients.
While developed specifically for the Kimberley, the principles are likely to be valuable in other regions. The framework sets out performance targets under four categories:

Professional development of the workforce
The workplace environment
Care models
Systems and processes
Source: Kimberley Aboriginal Health Planning Forum

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