Authors: Rachel Hughes
Year: 2019
Event: 2019 TheMHS Conference
Subject: Shining the Light: Using a place-based approach to inform and co-commission a region wide suicide prevention and postvention service and well-being activities.
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract:
Biography:
Rachel Hughes is a senior program officer for Suicide Prevention at Eastern Melbourne PHN. She is currently responsible for co-ordinating the two place-based trials which are funded in partnership with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. In her recent work at the PHN, she has also been co-ordinating the co-commissioning of suicide prevention and postvention services.
The Eastern Melbourne PHN, a Commonwealth funded organisation responsible for planning and commissioning a range of health services to meet the needs of our community, has co-commissioned with the Victorian government, a systems-based, regional approach to suicide prevention and postvention.
This innovative model has been informed by working with the Department of Health and Human Services to trial place-based approaches in two local government areas. The trials aim to harness local skills, expertise and resources to implement innovative, tailored, evidence-based initiatives in local communities. Evidence shows a systemic, community-based approach to suicide prevention is likely to be the most effective at reducing suicide rates (Contributing lives, thriving communities: review of mental health programmes and services, NMHC, 2014).
Two models have informed the service specifications; the Integrated Wellbeing-Motivation-Action Model and the LifeSpan Model (Black Dog, 2017). The use of these two models is based on an extensive review of relevant suicide prevention literature and evidence-based practice.
This presentation will outline the learnings from the place-based trial, the co-commissioning process, and the model of service delivery.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: The audience will learn how Eastern Melbourne PHN has translated both state and commonwealth government policy along with local needs analysis to plan, design and fund suicide prevention and postvention.
Learning Objective 2: This presentation will enable mental health services to broaden their understanding that suicide prevention and intervention encompasses more than mental health; it is a population wide issue which demands a different approach.
References
O’Connor, R. C. (2011). Towards an integrated motivational–volitional model of suicidal behaviour. International handbook of suicide prevention: Research, policy and practice, 1, 181-98.
Black Dog Institute (2017) LifeSpan: an evidence-based, integrated approach to suicide prevention. Retrieved on 7 December, 2018, from https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/research/lifespan
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