CEI worked with the Black Dog Institute to design and implement LifeSpan: an evidence-informed approach to suicide prevention in NSW.
Despite increased interest and investment in suicide prevention, rates are not declining. In 2014, 2,864 Australians died by suicide – more than the national road toll. LifeSpan provides more robust, evidence-informed prevention strategies to help save lives from suicide.
CEI worked with the Black Dog Institute to:
- Integrate high-quality implementation practice into LifeSpan
- Implement LifeSpan in four local NSW trial sites to determine the effectiveness of the new approach
- Assess whether the trial site communities are using the new approach successfully and seeing results
- Refine suicide prevention strategies to best meet local needs using current evidence
LifeSpan is community-based, working at a local level to implement nine suicide-prevention strategies: from increasing students' understanding of mental illness, to helping GPs better identify and support at-risk individuals. LifeSpan's integrated systems approach is expected to prevent 21% of suicide deaths and 30% of suicide attempts.
More information about LifeSpan can be found here.