Over the past six months, the Life Promotion and Suicide Prevention Collaborative has been buzzing with activity, hosting events to shape a common agenda, identifying critical shifts, and, more recently, designing and refining pitches to propel these shifts forward.

Last month, during our Collaborative Side Sessions, we delved into focused discussions on each key theme: racism, education, access, systems, stigma and language.

The Five by Five Collaborative featured five presentations covering five topics relating to life promotion and suicide prevention. It aimed to facilitate information sharing and foster engaging discussions.

(Fun fact: Five by Five is a term that describes radio communication meaning “loud and clear”.) Communication is a key component of any Collective Impact approach to a movement for change.

Queensland Human Rights Commission

Erin Jia from the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC) delivered an insightful presentation shedding light on the QHRCs function and roles.

Erin introduced the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019 and the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991, highlighting the QHRCs role in promoting understanding, acceptance, and public discussion of human rights, as well as the Commission's education programs, complaints, conciliation, and settlement processes.

Erin gave an update to the application of the Acts from April 29th, 2024, highlighting amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act which introduced stronger vilification and hate crime laws in Queensland. Erin’s insights directly resonate with the key themes underpinning our critical shifts, including racism, access, stigma, and language.

The presentation not only enriched our understanding of the QHRC but reinforced the connection between human rights and our collective efforts in life promotion and suicide prevention.

StandBy Support After Suicide

Rachel Powers and Shelley Richens from Uniting Care shared a presentation on StandBy Support after Suicide. They shared definitions, recent statistics and ideas like Thomas Joiner's Theory of Suicide. Acknowledging that people bereaved of suicide are more likely to die by suicide, StandBy considers their work in postvention as suicide prevention.

Rachel and Shelley shared practical tips on supporting those bereaved by suicide, drawing from StandBy's training program, "What do I say, what do I do?". These insights empower individuals to navigate sensitive conversations and situations with compassion and effectiveness, fostering healing and resilience among those in need. Rachel and Shelley shared insights on how individuals can access StandBy's support, and what forms that support takes, and provided guidelines on language use when discussing suicide. This information helped to enhance our understanding of how to effectively support those affected by suicide and reduce the stigma often associated with suicide.

Yarns Heal Queensland

Sharon Kinchela from the Queensland Council for LGBTI Health (QC) introduced Yarns Heal Queensland as a suicide prevention project for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and LGBTIQ+ Sistergirl and Brotherboy community. As a Collaborative we know both First Nations people and the LGBTIQ+ community are disproportionately represented in suicide statistics, making Brotherboys and Sistergirls even more vulnerable. Sharon shared Yarns Heal's approach, including culturally sensitive outreach, community engagement, storytelling, awareness campaigns, and collaboration with local organisations and community leaders.

Sharon also shared an overview of the Yarns Heal project in Queensland, including work happening in the Cairns area and struggles the team were currently experiencing in establishing relationships and supporters in communities throughout Cape York and Torres Strait Island regions. It was great to see Collaborative members excited to hear about Yarns Heal and offer connections immediately following the presentation.

Updates from Collaborative Side Sessions

The Life Promotion and Suicide Prevention team shared some insights from our Collaborative Side Sessions in April. We described the process of the side sessions, which were facilitated in a focus group style to delve into the key themes of Racism, Stigma and Language, Access, Systems, and Education.

The sessions explored the issues and pitch ideas from the shark tank-style event in February, extracting valuable insights from participants. The Side Sessions uncovered a wealth of knowledge within our Collaborative. With participants sharing a mix of practical suggestions and innovative ideas, there was high energy and commitment to work together and do something different.

Throughout the discussion, the scale of the issues and actions were considered—whether they were addressing national or state-level issues, local concerns, individual actions, or perhaps a combination of all three. The next step involves distilling this wealth of information into a format that is accessible and actionable for all involved, harnessing the collective wisdom of the Collaborative to drive meaningful change in life promotion and suicide prevention efforts.

Snapshot from National Suicide Prevention Conference

A strong representation from Far North Queensland attended the National Suicide Prevention Conference in Adelaide in early May.

Everybody found something to connect with. The following are just some of the key themes and new developments from the conference:

Further development of the Socio-economic and Environmental Determinants of Suicide paper by Suicide Prevention Australia
Renewed focus on Domestic and Family Violence and LGBTIQA+
The essential role economics plays in public policy
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy (draft to be released 2024)
Workplace psychological hazards: responsibilities for employers
The imperative of collaboration across all levels of government and focus on new ways of working
Service reform and redesign; lived experience
Focus on First Nations-led and designed responses
The continued push for National Suicide Prevention legislation
Research, evaluation and shared data in Suicide Prevention

What's next?

We are currently looking at and sorting the insights gathered from our Collaborative Side Sessions, ensuring thorough review and logical presentation.

We are planning an upcoming online forum, a virtual gathering to explore life promotion and suicide prevention. Additionally, we will be facilitating some regional side sessions to extend the collaborative efforts to different regions, allowing for more localised discussions and the inclusion of diverse perspectives.

Finally, we will design and distribute a short survey to the collaborative members to track progress and gather feedback on our approach, aiming to develop fresh and interconnected strategies for suicide prevention.

Five by Five Collaborative: Fostering collaboration and insights