Bring the Humanity Back: notes from the December Life Promotion & Suicide Prevention FNQ Collaborative event
A Common Agenda and Critical Shifts
We’ve been hosting the Collaborative events for over a year now and so far we have been extremely pleased, if not pleasantly surprised, by the effectiveness of the ‘creative’ approach to suicide prevention.
Stepping away from traditional committee-style approaches we have been building a strong, interconnected group of people who can spark ideas with each other and take the initiative to work together.
Each event has built upon the previous one, increasing connections, relationships, ideas and actions. By inviting people just out of their comfort zones, we have seen fantastic growth within our Collaborative.
As we lead into our next stage of creating a movement for change, let's take a brief look at the Community Visions and Critical Shifts identified at the end of last year.
At the heart of a Collective Impact-style approach to suicide prevention lies the development of a common agenda – a shared roadmap for success.
We approached developing the Common Agenda in two parts:
Part 1 – A Deep Dive into Building a Common Agenda. We looked at developing a Common Agenda for Change, crafting a common vision of a community we would like to live in.
Part 2 – Critical Shifts. We worked on identifying what needs to happen to advance the agenda and make that vision a reality.
It is possible to think this is very much “utopia thinking” but a common agenda is intentionally aspirational.
It is precisely because we are addressing the complex and many-faceted problem of suicide, that we can’t use a usual linear thought process or even a traditional strategic planning approach.
Community vision
In our Community Vision event, members came up with their shared ideas of what the perfect community would look like. Below are a few of the visions answering “What does your perfect community look like?”:
“Looks out for and helps each other, where neighbours know each other's name, where people feel connected, have a sense of belonging, where you never feel alone and where there are spaces where people can gather and be heard”
“Reflects the beauty and humanity of the people and place and that includes community, culture, family, protocol and includes healthy communication”
“Is generous and diverse, where people are respected, where there is equity and access to health and education and work and housing”
“Has gardens and green spaces, where there is mutual respect and beauty and joy, hope, possibility, community pride and love”
“Where diversity, equity, compassion and humanity rule”
Critical Shifts
Critical Shifts focus on ‘what’ rather than ‘how’ and take us from the current state to an ideal future state. It identifies specific problems and priority spaces to focus on to design solutions.
The table below includes critical shifts from our previous Collaborative. While it may look like a lot, it's not surprising, given that our Collaborative is full of very experienced and creative members who identified a wide range of changes they want to see.
The left column is the identified Current State (or problem) and the right is the ideal Future State.
Comments either in brackets or italics are potential solutions and should be read as initial ideas only.
| Current State | Future State |
|---|---|
Unspoken taboo Negative language use (e.g. in health and hospital settings) |
Strengths-based language Cultural strength |
| Suspension/exclusion of students from school | No suspension/exclusion of students A greater understanding of students is present in educators |
| Lack of services in regional and remote areas (Address basic human rights of people in regional and remote areas by upskilling local people) |
The basic human rights of people to access health and social services is met |
Systemic racism (Build cultural capacity of services/government review policy and procedures) |
Systemic racism is not present in the operation of health and social services or government policy and procedures |
The stigma around suicidal ideation (Increase community education in meaningful ways including sharing real-life stories to decrease stigma and increase hope) |
When people express suicidal thoughts they are accepted and not judged |
| Power Over Top-down bureaucracy |
Power With Grassroots |
| Restricted and siloed funding models/culture | Flexible humanistic funding models are driven by the community |
| Resources not currently equitable | Equity in resources |
| Silo mentality in funding and service provision | Collaborative funding application and service provision |
| Access to GPs and the cost of GP care are not available and are prohibitive for many | Access to GPs and no cost for GP |
| Current siloed work even when it is part of the role over working putting out fires means collaboration is dropped | Protected time and space for collaboration |
| The current system is working for some but it is not spoken about i.e. for-profit prison landlords' limited wage growth | Open and honest approach to the design of not-for-profit social service delivery |
| Political rhetoric about DFV including it being a woman's problem | Male leadership in DFV |
| Some staff who have contact with suicide attempt survivors are not trauma-trained and compassionate and can be judgemental and dismissive | All staff who have contact with suicide attempt survivors are trauma-trained and compassionate because people recover better in an environment where they are understood and shown compassion |
| Centrelink cut (you) people off benefits on a whim | Centrelink never cut (you) people off |
| Expensive and ineffective transport options | Free transport |
A stigma that all CALD (migrant) (religious) communities don’t engage and have their heads in the sand regarding suicide and suicide prevention (CALD communities are supported to connect to services to co-design programs that address specific cultural determinants) |
CALD communities engage easily with a range of health and social services |
| Basic human rights/needs are not available due to costs | Basic human rights/needs are free or can't be profited off e.g. housing, medical, food |
| Focussing on academic achievement in schooling and on discipline without sufficient attention to the development of emotional intelligence (Starting with children and investing in our children developing emotional intelligence safety etc.) |
School curriculum has a broad focus that recognises emotional intelligence as key to learning and is weighted equally with academic learning |
The next step is to look deeply at the critical shifts and understand some of the “why” underneath the problems to design creative solutions together.
As a collaborative group envisioning a future that values humanity, connection and well-being, addressing these critical shifts will be key to making lasting positive change. It won't happen in an instant but it will seed some ideas to work on.
Moving forward, these identified shifts will guide us in designing and implementing effective strategies for life promotion and suicide prevention.
