South Australia is the first jurisdiction in Australia to establish Legislation in the form of a Suicide Prevention Act. Amongst other elements, the Act provides for the Minister of Health and Wellbeing, the Chief Public Health Officer, and the Chief Psychiatrist to publish guidelines and recommendations regarding suicide prevention measures. The Act further requires the establishment of a suicide register, which allows information sharing and the obtaining of additional information, which may assist with prevention actions.
This presentation will describe the experiences of collaborative approaches of using the above aspects of the Act and the Statutory Powers to identify themes and trends in deaths by suicide related to a frequently used location in SA. This resulted in supportive actions to being offered to a Government Agency who own the location, and its staff.
The site visit itself lead to understanding the ongoing (lived) experiences of staff at the organisation, the traumatic experiences of their work life and how this influenced their interactions with persons at risk of suicide.
Amongst key recommendations of the offered support, was that of non-clinical staff training in suicide awareness, the concept of which was to inform the actions a person can take when recognising a potential crisis and/or signs that someone may be having thoughts of suicide. The intent of the training was to enhance approaches for staff that the idea that suicide is preventable, reduce their reluctance to intervene when required and reduce the stigma often associated with suicide.
Staff experiences of the training, their preconceptions and evaluation of the training will be described, along with the positive outcomes of the training which lead to the direct intervention by staff who had completed the training and ultimately saved the life of person who intended to end their life by suicide only 1 week after completion of the training.
The Suicide Prevention Act provisions related to obtaining information has assisted two public sector agencies and one private sector business share information with the Office about risk. While the relationships have been collaborative, the legislated provision has enabled data, reports and other material to be shared for a clear purpose when this information would not usually be provided to another agency.