National Suicide Prevention Trial: Port Lincoln Community Consultation Report
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The recommendations for Port Lincoln were:
Improving emergency and follow-up care for suicidal crisis • Engage people with a lived experience who can inform of changes to the referral process to assist with improving emergency and follow-up care. • Implement a dedicated aftercare service to provide follow-up care for those who have made a suicide attempt. This includes providing continuity of care, coordination across services and strong follow-up. • Implement best practice care guidelines within emergency departments and deliver training to emergency department personnel and hospital staff. • Provide locally developed resource packs to patients, family and carers who have been in contact with crisis care. • Develop a service level agreement and structured systems to ensure support can be ongoing and agencies provide services aligned to their expertise.
Using evidence-based treatment for suicidality • Improve information sharing between services, families and carers. • Encourage the use of Telehealth and e-Mental Health tools. • Deliver Advanced Training in Suicide Prevention (ATSP) to clinicians including doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists.
Equipping primary care to identify and support people in distress • Provide further training opportunities for GPs and practice staff. • Establish clear referral mechanisms within the community. • Develop posters, cards and information brochures on local service options that are visible and accessible across all primary care facilities. • Equip practices with a ‘stepped care’ model that allows GPs to easily identify patients in need of support and tailor a treatment plan that is right for them. • Implement improved consent tools to enable better sharing of information between health services, as well as other support networks (e.g. family and friends).
Improving the competency and confidence of frontline workers to deal with suicidal crisis • Develop a common appropriate language across agencies and sectors. • Provide targeted education and training for accident and emergency staff to refresh or upskill and build their capacity to support the community. • Facilitate real-time electronic data collection by agencies to report and measure the level of suicidal crisis within the community.
