National Suicide Prevention Trial: Yorke Peninsula Community Consultation Report
The recommendations for Yorke Peninsula were:
Improving emergency and follow-up care for suicidal crisis • Promote and expand aftercare services in the region 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 the emergency departments and deliver training to emergency department personnel and hospital staff. • Employ specialised mental health trained nurse practitioners to be based in emergency departments. • Provide locally developed resource packs to patients, family and careers who have been in contact with crisis care. • Develop a plan of how more support can be provided for young people under the age of 16. • Create a ‘no wrong door’ approach.
Using evidence-based treatment for suicidality • Improve information sharing between services, families and carers. • Deliver Advanced Training in Suicide Prevention (ATSP) to clinicians including doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists. • Encourage the use of Telehealth and e-Mental Health tools.
Equipping primary care to identify and support people in distress • Provide further training opportunities for GPs and practice staff. • Equip practices with a ‘stepped care’ model allowing GPs to easily identify patients in need of support and tailor a treatment plan that is right for them. • Encourage the development of local multidisciplinary networks. • Create linkages and collaborations between services to ensure streamlined referrals and aftercare support. • 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 • Provide targeted education and training for accident and emergency staff to refresh or upskill and build their capacity to support the community. • Build awareness across first responders of local referral pathways. • Develop a common, appropriate language across agencies and sectors. • Encourage participation of frontline workers in multidisciplinary events such as Expert Insight forums.
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