As the Minister for Health, the Hon. Greg Hunt, gets ready to outline the detail of the newly launched national mental health strategy for children and young people tomorrow, LivingWorks, the leading international provider of suicide prevention training LivingWorks, calls for investment in training all of those who care for our children.
LivingWorks Australia Director, Shayne Connell, said with his background in Psychology and 20 years’ experience in suicide prevention and training, it is his role as a Dad that should require mandatory training when it comes to the mental health of his children and their friends:
“We know that mental health conditions in adulthood often emerge in childhood. We also know that too many Australians are reluctant to ask for help and, tragically, children as young as eight years old are attempting to take their own lives. What this tells us is that as well as raising the mental health literacy and fostering earlier social emotional wellbeing of our young people, we must complement this with evidence-based suicide first aid training options for parents and carers.
Shayne goes on to say, “We have standard training programs in place for people to learn physical first aid skills and this knowledge has saved countless lives. However, not many people realise that in Australia you are far more likely to come into contact with someone thinking about suicide than someone in cardiac arrest. For our youngest and most vulnerable, every Australian adult has a responsibility to educate themselves in how to best support them in their greatest time of need.”
More than 2 million people have been trained to intervene through programs such as ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and safeTALK since 1983. LivingWorks training is provided across Australia, including the safeTALK in Schools program, the Australian Defence Force suicide prevention strategy, Lifeline Australia and various Universities and community organisations. The ASIST program, lessons from which have informed development of LivingWorks Start, has more than 30 published peer-reviewed studies of the impact of our training) and is thanks to years of consistent delivery of this short course by professionally trained local peers.
Last month, LivingWorks introduced LivingWorks Start, their first online program. Learnable in as little as one hour from any computer or mobile device, LivingWorks Start empowers everyone to play a role in saving lives from suicide.”
