Indigenous Governance for Suicide Prevention In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities
Indigenous Governance for Suicide Prevention In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities
∘ Cultural Understanding & Respect ∘
Commissioning Framework – Western Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast PHN
Commissioning Framework – Western Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast PHN
Western NSW PHN Workforce Capacity Building Project
Undertaken through the National Suicide Prevention Trial, the project recruited residents from each of six trial site Shires – Brewarrina, Bourke, Cobar, Lachlan, Walgett and Weddin – supporting them to complete a Certificate lV in Community Services.
Krurungal Community Pathway Connector Program – with Gold Coast PHN
Krurungal Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Corporation, is a small community-controlled organisation focused on emergency relief, education, cultural safety training and connecting people to services to meet their needs, in the Gold Coast community. Krurungal is highly respected and deeply connected in the local Gold Coast community, and because of this and the diversity of its programs it is often contacted by people and families whose issues do not fall neatly within a single program category
Strengthening Our Spirits – National Suicide Prevention Trial for Aboriginal people in the Greater Darwin region
When the National Suicide Prevention Trial was announced in 2016, the Greater Darwin region was chosen as one of two Indigenous-only sites (along with the Kimberley in WA) from a total of 12 regions. Approximately half of suicide-related deaths in the Northern Territory occur within the Darwin region. Young people, males, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are particularly overrepresented in those figures.
Sad news, sorry business
These guidelines were developed for health workers caring for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through death and dying. They are not specifically about suicide but include sections on sudden death and coronial investigations, and general explanation and advice to support culturally-responsive care of a dying person and their family.
Source: Queensland Health
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
AIMhi Stay Strong
This app is designed to be used by service providers and clients in a client session. It is available in iOS and Android versions and facilitates discussion about:
Friends and family who help keep clients strong and healthy
Personal strengths relating to spiritual and cultural, physical, family, social and work, and mental and emotional aspects of clients’ lives – represented visually as leaves on a tree
Aspects of clients’ lives that take away their strength in the same four areas
Setting client-driven goals for change to work on
Plans for achieving their goals and steps towards goals
It includes screening based on K5 and K10 scales and help-seeking prompts for people who score high levels of psychological distress.
A youth version of the AIMhi app, AIMhi-y, is under development but not yet available for download. It is funded by Northern Territory PHN as part of the National Suicide Prevention Trial.
Source: Menzies School of Health Research