Improve wellbeing in people and communities
Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events and relates to both individuals and communities. The places where people live, work and learn have a significant role to play in building resilience. Mental health helps us stay resilient, build social support and self-efficacy, and cope with adversity.
This action area focuses on the social determinants of health and wellbeing, and early intervention before suicidal behaviours develop.
Providing supports early in life sets a strong foundation for social and emotional wellbeing throughout life, and social connectedness and mental health play an important role in protecting people against suicide risk and vulnerability.
By reducing the extent to which life events negatively impact individuals and communities, the likelihood that suicidal behaviours manifest can also be reduced.
Actions
Enable Queensland children and families to thrive
1. Expand programs targeting infant and pre-school children with mental health concerns, and their families and carers.
2. Develop a framework and professional development program for use across agencies addressing the acute and long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences.
3. Promote service models designed and delivered by First Nations people to effectively engage First Nations children, young people and kinship networks.
4. Promote integrated models of support that use a whole-of-family and kin approach, especially
for youth, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and First Nations people.
5. Improve suicide prevention literacy for families and peers to enhance support for young people.
6. Expand programs that support parental mental health and wellbeing and perinatal care to reduce adverse childhood experiences.
Strengthen evidence-based suicide prevention strategies in places of learning
7. Evaluate the effectiveness of suicide prevention and postvention activities in education settings, particularly in high schools and tertiary education settings (e.g. universities, TAFE), and promote effective interventions.
8. Strengthen connection and referral pathways from education settings to appropriate community
and clinical supports.
9. Develop and implement effective multi-tiered approaches to support student mental health
and wellbeing and suicide prevention activities that are tailored to the individual needs of students.
Build supportive workplace environments that are equipped to respond to distress
10. Support workplaces to develop and implement suicide prevention strategies and responses for people who are distressed, or who are supporting people who are distressed.
11. Encourage public sector agencies to adopt appropriate systems and responses for people who are distressed, or who are supporting people who are distressed, including actions, targets, reporting and accountability processes.
Build inclusive, resilient, socially connected and mentally healthy communities
12. Identify and invest in community-led suicide prevention initiatives that prioritise community connection and respond to people in distress, with priority given to programs that reflect local issues and needs such as rural and remote areas, and First Nations communities.
13. Work with neighbourhood and community centres to enhance digital literacy and access to online
suicide prevention resources and services.
Contribute to reduced distress and suicide risk by supporting Queenslanders to achieve economic, employment and housing security
14. Educate the government and non-government workforce about links between suicide and social
and economic factors, and support all relevant government agencies to include suicide prevention
and suicide risk when developing social and economic policies and programs.
15. Pilot a service response model that integrates health, community, disability, aged care and housing support.
