In 2018, Life in Mind, the national digital gateway for suicide prevention, was proud to highlight a great deal of progress and positive change, both within the suicide prevention sector and Everymind.
The Life in Mind team would like to take this opportunity to reflect on and congratulate the sector for the impressive suicide prevention work undertaken across the country, some of which was captured throughout the year via the Life in Mind website’s news section.
As we move into 2019 we’d like to remind all our stakeholders to reach out if you are involved in a piece of suicide prevention work that would interest the sector, or you see something that you’d like us to share.
We’ve also been reflecting on Life in Mind’s most notable highlights, including the launch of the new Life in Mind website, the national #YouCanTalk campaign launch, and the much anticipated redevelopment of the National Communications Charter. (Have you signed the Charter yet? Click here and sign up today.)
A summary of some of the Life in Mind team’s 2018 achievements are below:
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
Website planning and development. The Life in Mind website content was finalised, with communications planning for the launch.
MARCH
Website soft launch (28 March 2018). The soft launch provided the sector with an opportunity to provide user feedback. This allowed the Life in Mind team to continue their own evaluations and implement changes based on both user feedback and ongoing development.
APRIL-JUNE
Life in Mind website live. Life in Mind informed key stakeholders that the website was live through an e-newsletter and phone calls.
JULY
Life in Mind hosted and provided support for the #YouCanTalk campaign on the 16th July. Led by some of Australia’s national mental health and suicide prevention organisations, the #YouCanTalk campaign aims to empower and increase confidence when it comes to talking about suicide. Find out more at #YouCanTalk.
AUGUST
Life in Mind continued developing and finalising designs of the National Communications Charter and Tasmanian Communications Charter. The National Communications Charter (The Charter) is a unified approach to mental health and suicide prevention that supports coordinated and consistent messaging around mental health and suicide prevention.
Tasmania is the first state to develop a state-based version of the National Communications Charter. It is the result of a partnership between Everymind, the Mental Health Council of Tasmania (MHCT) and the Tasmanian Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Communications Charter Working Party, with funding provided by the Tasmanian Government.
This was a huge body of work for the Life in Mind team, along with the two Advisory groups who worked collaboratively to produce a unified document.
SEPTEMBER
Life in Mind offered support for the RUOK? Day Newcastle Convoy. The Conversation Convoy departed from Geelong on 30 July 2018 and reached its destination in Sydney on R U OK?Day, Thursday 13 September 2018. It aimed to inspire everyone, no matter their location, to invest more time in the people around them and give them the skills, motivation and confidence to start a conversation with anyone they might be worried about.
Launch of the National Communications Charter. The Minister for Health, the Hon. Greg Hunt was in Melbourne to launch The Charter, which was rolled out ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10 and R U OK?DAY on September 13.
Launch of the Tasmanian Communications Charter in Parliament House, Tasmania on 10 Sept. Everymind welcomed the launch of the Tasmanian Communications Charter: A state-based approach to mental health and suicide prevention (The Charter) at Parliament House in Hobart.
Team involvement in World Suicide Prevention Day event on the Gold Coast, 10 Sept. Every Australian was encouraged to support the 2018 theme ‘Working Together to Prevent Suicide’ with various suicide prevention awareness raising events held in Australia on or around World Suicide Prevention Day.
Life in Mind supports ABS causes of death data – information hosted on Life in Mind portal. Mindframe, an Everymind program, works closely with the ABS each year to examine, contextualise and distil ABS data for use by media, stakeholders and government. This process seeks to ensure that these complex and highly specific figures are interpreted correctly and reported to the public safely. Life in Mind hosted some of the key data which had been analysed by the Mindframe team.
OCTOBER
NCIS visited Everymind to go over coronial data. The National Coronial Information System (NCIS) was launched in 2000 as a resource for the collection, storage and access of coronial data. Data is sourced from all coronial jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand about all reportable deaths. It enables coroners, their staff, public sector agencies, researchers and other agencies to obtain evidence to inform death and injury prevention activities.
Find out more on the NCIS visit.
NOVEMBER
Life in Mind hosted the event 'In Conversation: with Professor Rory O'Connor'. A well-respected figure in the suicide prevention sector with more than 20 years’ experience, Professor Rory O’Connor shared his key learnings and insights with attendees at the Newcastle-based event.
The event, part of the 2018 Trevor Waring Expert in Residence series, was chaired by National Mental Health Commissioner Chair Lucy Brogden, who facilitated an interactive, live question and answer session with audience members. Find out more here.
2019 is already shaping up to be another busy, eventful and productive year. We look forward to working with many of our key existing stakeholders and working with new stakeholders on our upcoming projects.
To stay updated on the teams latest activity, keep an eye on our news page.
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