New lived experience guidelines for suicide prevention services

Posted 29th July 2024

A new set of guidelines to support suicide prevention services care for people experiencing suicidal distress or bereavement are now available.

Roses in the Ocean and Folk were engaged to facilitate a co-design process to inform development of the new Lived Experience of Suicide Service Guidelines through funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.

The guidelines inform a range of suicide prevention activities, including service design, commissioning and evaluations across multiple areas including:

  • Aftercare services to support people who have made a suicide attempt or experienced a suicidal crisis
  • Postvention services for people bereaved or impacted by a suicide; and
  • Distress Brief Support services for people in the early stages of distress.

Learn more about the Lived Experience of Suicide Service Guidelines in the following Q&A with Roses in the Ocean CEO, Bronwen Edwards.

Question

Why are the guidelines important?

Answer

It’s essential that there are services across our diverse communities where people feel comfortable and confident to engage - services that offer the nature of support that will best meet their needs.

The only way services can do this is by being co-designed with the people who have used or may need to use them.

These guidelines provide the foundations to inform locally co-designed services to meet specific local needs. Guidelines informed by people with lived experience also help to provide consistency in the core elements of similar services in different regions.

Question

How are the guidelines unique to other resources supporting lived and living experience?

Answer

Each service’s guideline has been specifically designed by people who have previously needed or used that type of service or may use the service in the future.

The guidelines are intended for services, communities and governments involved in the design, commissioning, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of that service.

Question

What are the key messages or actions for the sector?

Answer
  • Services will benefit from creating service models that are co-designed with local representation to ensure they reflect local needs
  • Services need to make sure they can support anyone experiencing distress – every door is the right door
  • Peer-workers have a primary role in service delivery
  • Service providers must ensure that they can offer easy connection pathways, and encourage self-connection
  • Support provided by services must be individually responsive and holistic
  • Family and friends involvement is important in decision making and support pathways
  • Services need to provide support to people experiencing distress for as long as it needed, and make it easy for people to re-engage with a service
  • Services need to operate in ways that ensures all people receive support when it is needed. No one leaves without the support they need, or to be placed on a waitlist
  • Services need to instil proactive follow up with people who have utilised the service
  • Organisations responsible for commissioning services need to involve lived experience in all stages
  • Governance needs to include lived experience to inform decision making and practice
  • Diverse communities need culturally capable services to support lived experience.

Learn more and download the guidelines here.

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