Page 1038 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (6.40): I want to talk tonight about QPR training, which I will explain in a moment. Early intervention for mental illness and suicide prevention are key priorities for me, as the Minister for Mental Health, and for the ACT government. According to 2018 ABS data, there were 3,128 deaths by suicide across Australia, the highest suicide rate in the past 10 years. Fifty-eight of these deaths occurred in the ACT and each of them is a tragedy that ripples through the community.
That is why the ACT government has committed $1.5 million to establish a pilot version of the Black Dog Institute’s lifespan integrated suicide prevention framework. Lifespan is an evidence-based approach that combines nine strategies for suicide prevention into one community-led approach incorporating health, education, front-line services, business and the community.
Earlier this month I was pleased to launch a key element of the lifespan framework, which is the question, persuade, refer training, also known as QPR. QPR is a free online course designed to help equip anyone in our community to support those who they suspect may be at risk of suicide. QPR is an up to 60-minute online program designed specifically for anyone over the age of 18 who would like to better understand the warning signs and behaviours that can lead to someone taking their own life.
The content is delivered through a mixture of videos, written content and quizzes, and includes a review of common myths and misconceptions about suicide, warning signs of suicide, how to ask someone if they are experiencing suicidal ideation, how to persuade someone to stay alive, and how to refer people to appropriate professional help.
While there are never any guarantees about how to stop someone taking their own life, at the community level we can educate ourselves to pick up on the signs and to ask the right questions, and, if necessary, support someone to get the right help. I went through the training before I launched the program and I found it very helpful.
It is confronting to consider how we might go about having these conversations, but it is vitally important that we do. Just as we already urge people to know CPR, we are also now asking people to learn how to do QPR. This is a critical part of reducing the stigma around mental health and supporting people to have these conversations.
I want to thank the team at the Capital Health Network, especially the chief executive, Gaylene Coulton, and her team for joining me at the launch and for partnering with ACT Health in funding the lifespan program. While suicide is a difficult and complex issue, and there is no one single answer, these are the kinds of practical initiatives that can make a difference on the ground to people’s lives.
Research from the Black Dog Institute has shown that the implementation of lifespan in the ACT could lead to a reduction of up to 20 per cent in suicide deaths and 30 per cent in suicide attempts. I am very hopeful that by rolling out these kinds of initiatives and having these kinds of conversations we will start to see the number of suicides in our community decreasing.
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