Region wide commitment to suicide and critical incident support

Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Member for Riverina, The Hon Michael McCormack MP, together with the region’s first responders, mental health agencies, local government representatives, and the Department of Education, today signed a formal Statement of Commitment to providing a coordinated approach to suicide prevention and postvention supports across the Murrumbidgee region.

Organisations represented and signing the Statement of Commitment include Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network, Murrumbidgee Local Health District, Wellways Australia, New South Wales Police, headspace, Relationships Australia, Riverina Medical and Dental Corporation, Centacare South West NSW, Department of Education, Family and Community Services, and New South Wales Ambulance.

MPHN CEO Melissa Neal said the signing of the Statement of Commitment was the result of a dedicated group of organisations, including Federal Member for Farrer, The Hon Sussan Ley MP and The Hon. Michael McCormack’s office.

“A Suicide Prevention and Postvention Roundtable was held in November last year, and the strong commitment from the group to prioritise suicide prevention and postvention, as seen the group continue to meet throughout the year to progress three key needs identified in the roundtable discussions,” Ms Neal said.

“These needs were to build community capacity to identify people in need of support and how best to support them; to build awareness around what local supports are available to encourage help-seeking behaviours; and finally to develop a coordinated response to communities impacted by suicide or other critical incident.

“Part of addressing building community capacity and increasing awareness, in May of this year, under the guidance of the group, MPHN launched a mental health and suicide resources page to help both communities and businesses in how they support local mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention and to help promote positive messages and safe language around these topics,” she said.

New South Wales Police Superintendent Bob Noble said the development of a Communications and Response Protocol document will be critical in providing a coordinated and timely response to communities impacted by suicide or other critical incident.

“There are many quality local initiatives to support mental health and suicide prevention, but coordination between agencies, schools, communities and first responders was not as coordinated as it could be,” Superintendent Noble said.

“This Communications and Response Protocol stipulates those coordination mechanisms between first responders and the mental health supports.

“What it means is those impacted, both the family and the wider local community are connected with appropriate mental health supports,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Member for Riverina, The Hon Michael McCormack MP said a coordinated approach to suicide prevention and postvention was critical in helping to reduce suicide rates.

“Suicide, and indeed, a critical incident where a life has been lost or significantly altered, impacts not only a family, but in our small rural towns, the whole community,” Mr McCormack said.

“I would like to applaud each of the members and organisations who have been working tirelessly as part of the Roundtable to develop a set of processes for supporting these communities in such difficult times, and for actively promoting self-help seeking behaviours and information about where to go to seek help in a concerted effort to reduce mental health stigma.

“I trust your efforts over the past 12 months and into the future will start to increase awareness of mental health supports available locally, build community capacity to support those impacted by ill-mental health, and it is my hope that these efforts will eventually lead to reduction in suicide rates across the region,” he said.

The mental health and suicide prevention resources page is available here: https://mphn.org.au/mental-health-and-suicide-prevention

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency should call the Mental Health Line 1800 011 511, Lifeline 13 11 14 or call 000. Or to access the Head to Health website visit www.headtohealth.gov.au.