Refugee specific suicide prevention training
Everymind and the NSW Ministry of Health, Mental Health Branch worked together to develop a new training package to support suicide prevention in refugees.
The training package intended to improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of service providers delivering the Mental Health Community Living Supports for Refugees (MH-CLSR) program as well as Local Health District mental health staff to identify and address suicide risk in their clients.
Development of the training package was guided by an expert reference group specialising in transcultural and refugee health, in conjunction with data collected through consultation with Local Health Districts and community-managed organisations.
The training package was scheduled to be delivered in 2021 across the seven Local Health Districts in New South Wales where the MH-CLSR program is being delivered:
- Mid North Coast
- Hunter New England
- Sydney
- Western Sydney
- South Western Sydney
- Illawarra Shoalhaven
- Murrumbidgee.
Expected outcomes
The expected outcomes of the project are to:
- Build the capacity of MH-CLSR and Local Health District mental health staff in suicide prevention for refugees and asylum seekers
- Decrease suicidal risk for refugees and asylum seekers accessing MH-CLSR services and Local Health District mental health services.
This project has been granted ethics approval by the Hunter New England Research Ethics and Governance Research Office, approval 2020/ETH00796
