Gold Coast leads the way in suicide prevention

Suicide is the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15-44 and kills twice as many Australians as road accidents. Helping suicide attempt survivors at this critical moment in their lives and understanding what works best for whom has led to a collaboration between Gold Coast Health and Bond University on world-class research to develop treatments that will prevent suicide. Professor Chris Stapelberg leads a study which will focus on patients presenting through emergency departments and community health services with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Federal Government and Bond University funding of $704,305 has been awarded to the team to conduct the research over three years. It is one of the first teams nationally to be funded under the National Suicide Prevention Research Fund, building on the success of the aspirational Zero Suicide strategy adopted by the Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist Services. Clinical Director Dr Kathryn Turner said the funding would provide a great opportunity to assess important additional specific psychological interventions for people who present with suicidal crises, therefore improving the care of people who present to hospital and health services with a risk of suicide. “This research will help our service and many services across the country and internationally to understand the best future investments to make in terms of psychological interventions for suicide prevention.”

Focus on the consumer – innovative, evidence-based care

Consistent with the Always Care philosophy, Dr Stapelberg and his team are developing innovative evidence-based interventions. An evaluation is currently under way of two interventions, the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that are being delivered to patients following a suicide attempt, in addition to the standardised clinical care approach, to determine whether these additional interventions improve the outcomes for this patient group over a two-year period. If the outcomes are positive, training of clinicians in these interventions is very feasible in a large and busy health service, allowing for rapid translation into standard clinical practice.

The study team Gold Coast Mental Health and Specialist Services:

Professor Chris Stapelberg; Dr Kathryn Turner; Dr Sabine Woerwag-Mehta; Dr Sarah Walker; Dr Ian Hughes; Dr Carla Patist; Vicki Green; Dr Anja C. GysinMaillart; Mia Delos; Tamara Hageman; Kim Fullerton Smith; Ravikumar Krishnaiah; Heidy Van Engelen; Sigi Gutjahr; Hitesh Joshi; Sarah McDowell; Allison Cameron; Trudy-Lee Scales;

Lived Experience Committee investigators:

Michelle Edwards; Angela Davies; Cherie Dillon, Titta Gigante, Cindy Heddle, Natalie Mudge, Anne Zappa.

External partners:

A/Professor Dr Anthony Pisani (University of Rochester, United States); Emeritus Professor Dr Konrad Michel (University Hospital of Psychiatry, Switzerland)

INTERESTED IN THIS RESEARCH?

Email: chris.stapelberg@health.qld.gov.au