Black Dog Institute

Suicide rates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are amongst the highest in the world. Despite increased funding and implementation of new prevention programs, very few indigenous people will seek help before acting on suicidal thoughts.

iBobbly is a trial of the world’s first suicide prevention app designed especially for use by Indigenous people on mobile phones or tablet devices.

Called iBobbly (a name derived from a Kimberley greeting), the app delivers treatment-based therapy in a culturally relevant way.

A video explaining the role of LifeSpan in suicide prevention

The Journal of Australasian Psychiatry published work by Black Dog Institute researchers, comparing LifeSpan to other suicide prevention models internationally.

Black Dog Institute provides a range of free factsheets and resources to educate people about mental health research and treatments. These cover such topics as: depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, workplace mental health, adolescents and young people’s mental health, suicide prevention, e-mental health, positive psychology and wellbeing.

This report summarises the findings of a workshop co-hosted by the Black Dog Institute and Country South Australia Primary Health Network. The session focused on suicidal crisis and follow-up care in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, bringing professional and cultural expertise together to explore culturally appropriate suicide prevention strategies and interventions.

The Black Dog Institute offers a range of free evidence-based educational resources, designed for teachers, young people and parents. These school resources can help secondary educators with building mental health and wellbeing education into their curriculum, and include online interactive short-courses for students and ready-to-use classroom activities. 

These guidelines are based on the input of people with a lived experience of suicide and leading clinicians. They aim to help those working in acute settings to inform service planning, better equip and support staff to work effectively with those at risk of suicide, and guide empathetic, compassionate responses to people experiencing a suicidal crisis. 

The Black Dog Institute’s Lived Experience Framework was developed to outline recommendations for effectively engaging people with lived experience of suicidality, bereavement by suicide and mental illness. It was also created with reviews from their families, support people and carers of those with lived experiences. Key insights from the Framework inform Black Dog’s implementation of the LifeSpan systems approach to suicide prevention. 

Black Dog researchers co-led an evaluation of various psychological programs, designed to prevent depression and/or anxiety in children and adolescents within schools. These programs consist of both online modules and face-to-face programs, offered to both primary and high school students. 

Black Dog Institute researchers led this study exploring the views of at-risk men, and their friends and family about the tensions inherent in suicide prevention. Participants recounted their experiences of the men’s suicide attempts and associated help-seeking, and suggested ways in which suicide prevention activities may be improved. 

Researchers with Black Dog Institute’s LifeSpan published a research paper which highlights the systematic and theoretical barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have been bereaved by suicide. The paper incorporates the lived experiences and professional experiences of advocates, and explores the importance of including lived experiences within programs for Indigenous suicide prevention.

The Black Dog Institute website includes resources to educate people on the warning signs of suicide and self-harm, and on how to act swiftly to seek help accordingly. If you're concerned that someone is thinking about taking their own life, it's important to talk to them by being kind and direct. Suicide can be prevented by recognising the warning signs and knowing the four steps to help prevent suicide. They are: 

1. Ask – asking decreases risk. 
2. Listen and Stay – check their safety, don’t leave them alone. 
3. Get Help – if someone’s life is in danger, call Emergency on 000; Lifeline on 13 11 14; or take them straight to Emergency at a hospital; see a GP or psychologist. 
4. Follow Up – make sure you check up on the person often.

In Australia, suicide rates have continued to rise over the last decade which presents us with an urgent need to rethink our course of action.

One of the biggest challenges of contemporary suicide prevention is that initiatives, policies and programs to prevent and respond to suicide are often unable to benefit from research evidence. This is not so much because this evidence is ignored, but because in many cases it does not exist.

Building on the extensive efforts across the suicide prevention sector, Black Dog Institute has developed a white paper that takes a major step towards addressing this critical research gap.

This is a call to action, based on evidence, that aims to inform research, policy and service provision so we can reduce the number of Australian lives lost to suicide.

Researchers from Black Dog Institute prepared this report for the National Mental Health Commission. The report investigates the response of health services to people who had previously made a suicide attempt, aiming to provide a better understanding of what support people currently receive, how helpful or otherwise these services are, and the barriers to improvement.