
Authors: Marina Johns, Deborah Costello and Beth Jackson, WA
Year: 2009
Event: 2009 TheMHS Conference
Subject: PROMOTION, PREVENTION, RURAL, Resilience & trauma
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
ISBN: 9780975765357
Abstract: The Understanding and Building Resilience (U&BR) Project is a mutli-level suicide prevention project conducted by the Injury Control Council WA (ICCWA) in the rural South West Region of Western Australia. The Project focuses on what communities can do to prevent suicide – with community resilience being the central theme. Based on action research conducted with 298 south west participants, this Project was funded by the Australian Government’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy from February 2007 to May 2009. Working groups in each community developed Action Plans with the objectives: advocate to improve access to services; develop local strategies to assist people to connect with their community; develop resilience building strategies and provide suicide prevention training; and increase community awareness and knowledge of referral and support services
This approach has not only focussed action on these key objectives within communities, but also initiated collaborative activities between various sectors within the region. For example, new intersectorial networking groups were established, and training partnerships occurred with Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention, Lifeline WA, health and education sectors, and South West Aboriginal Medical Service. The U&BR Project facilitated collaboration across all sectors of the community enabling the development of strategies for building community resilience for suicide prevention.
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