Page 4094 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2019
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In addition to those vulnerable groups, the ACT government is continuing to support people who have recently attempted suicide, which is the time when people are at the greatest risk of making another attempt. This is achieved through the ACT government’s ongoing funding for the way back support service, developed by Beyond Blue and provided in the ACT by Woden Community Service. The way back support service is a non-clinical suicide prevention program developed to provide follow-up support for people after they have attempted suicide. I am proud to say that the ACT government was an early adopter of the way back support service, as it funded a pilot of the program in 2016. Since then, the ACT government has continued to support the service and has negotiated a bilateral agreement with the commonwealth to provide matched funding to secure its continued operation in the ACT.
These are important health services for preventing suicide and promoting health and wellbeing in the territory. However, as I discussed earlier, the reasons that a person may attempt suicide are complex and multifactorial and can often be influenced by the social and economic circumstances that affect their lives. Many of these circumstances are outside the traditional remit of a health system.
Instead, effective community-wide suicide prevention requires the coordination of a range of different sectors, agencies and community groups that can take a holistic view of a person. A key element of this is enabling a whole-of-government approach where people can work together to improve the underlying mental health and wellbeing of the community and reduce the overall impact of mental illness.
I am also proud to say that in addressing the social and economic determinants of mental health and wellbeing, the ACT is leading the way. A key achievement in this is the establishment of the office for mental health and wellbeing, which was launched in June 2018. The work of the office centres on promoting and coordinating whole-of-government action towards improving mental health and wellbeing.
This aim is reflected in the territory-wide vision of mental health and wellbeing that has been developed by the office, in close consultation with members of the community and other key stakeholders. The vision that the office is championing is “a kind, connected and informed community working together to promote and protect the mental health and wellbeing of all”.
This vision is a call to action for cooperation that improves the mental health and wellbeing of all Canberrans. This reaffirms that suicide prevention is everyone’s business. In line with this, the model for the office prioritises close collaboration with agencies outside health services, including housing, employment, community services, justice, police and education. By encouraging linkages and cooperation between these agencies, the office and the ACT government are championing the importance of mental health and wellbeing across the community.
This focus on improving the range of social and economic factors that can impact on mental health will help to improve the naturally occurring protective factors in our community that help to prevent suicide. In this way, the ACT government is doing
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