STaY is an innovative suicide prevention initiative, implemented under the Darling Downs Indigenous Health unit, which dovetails best practice suicide intervention with a whole of community approach. The project started at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, in Cherbourg, where a cluster of suicides occurred amidst the context of military and police enforced checkpoints and highly restrictive measures for community safety.
Sit, Talk and Yarn (STaY) - Suicide Prevention in Cherbourg
Summary
Aim
The Sit, Talk and Yarn (STaY) project intends to scope, monitor and address gaps in culturally safe service provision of mental health care within the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service (Darling Downs Health). This will represent a continuation and significant expansion of the pilot project implemented in Cherbourg as part of a COVID response in 2020 - Cherbourg Suicide Prevention Project (CSP) project.
The theory of change applied to this project is that by codesigning, testing, and defining a culturally safe model of care in Cherbourg, the DDHHS can generalise these practices and look to implement learnings in development of suitable models of care for other sites; allowing for unique and place-based skills and knowledge to permeate and guide implementation.
Benefits
- tailor models of care for high risk pathways to community (after stay at MHU, prison, youth detention)
- complete service mapping and comprehensive best practice tools
- provide safety net for service users who do not meet acute service referral criteria (Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Services)
- embedding 'non-clinical' interventions in a clinical project (such as regular walks, resume building, incorporated cultural practices, engaging family networks in intervention)
- connecting informal and formal support networks
- promoting Social and Emotional Wellbeing principals in standard model of care, not as an additional element, is hoped to improve health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- destigmatising suicide though community training and informal referral pathways.
Background
They have found that there are community members presenting to Emergency Department (ED), talking to General Practitioners (GPs) or expressing concerns to their loved ones or friends, but they do not meet the criteria for acute services. So they have stepped in to be a safety net to those people who are not quite there yet as far as level of risk goes, They do a holistic assessment that takes into account, spiritual, cultural and socio-economic aspects. We formulate case plans that provide that level of support and open up the light at the end of the tunnel. We believe this relationship based approach will see a change in the whole of community outlook