Research typically takes 17 years to reach routine practice, but evidence-based suicide prevention cannot take decades to implement. The Suicide prevention implementation hub (the Hub) has been designed to support the Australian suicide prevention sector to harness implementation science and help close the research-to-practice gap.
Whether you're a policymaker, service provider, practitioner, researcher, or someone with lived experience of suicide, the Hub can help you learn more about implementation science and how to apply it effectively to suicide prevention.
The Hub was created as part of the LIFEWAYS project in collaboration with suicide prevention and implementation experts, and people with lived and living experience.
What is evidence?
Evidence is information that helps us understand what suicide prevention approaches work. This information could come from many different sources, such as research, data, case studies or people’s experiences.
In suicide prevention, we use evidence to inform our decisions. We can’t waste precious time and resources on interventions that are ineffective or cause harm.
Evidence-based decision-making is making the best decision we can with the information and resources we have, whilst keeping the people our decision will impact in mind.1
What is implementation?
Implementation is the process of putting an idea into action. It is the process that goes into planning and delivering any suicide prevention approach - from grassroots community projects to clinical interventions or national policy reform.
Suicide prevention approaches are rarely implemented based on their evidence alone. Research might not translate well to the ‘real world’; highly effective approaches can be poorly implemented, and ineffective approaches may be well-resourced and widely implemented.
This is a significant problem that wastes time and resources and prevents people from accessing effective supports.
Implementation science helps to bridge the gap between research and practice. Adapted from the work of Dr. Geoffrey Curran2, the video below uses simple language to explain implementation science in the context of suicide prevention.
