Thread by @TracyWesterman

“Aboriginal Suicide Prevention: Where is the funding going?”
The Fed Government has “allocated” $134M funding into Indigenous suicide prevention. Based on current suicide statistics this crudely translates to $248,000 per suicide death pr yr without adding State & other funding.

2/We have enormous amounts of funding injected into this critical area; yet, suicides continue to escalate. Our youth are dying by suicide at EIGHT times the rate of non-Indigenous children & it is only right that we ask why this level of funding has had little to no impact.

3/As a country facing this growing tragedy, we still have no nationally accepted evidence-based programs across the spectrum of early intervention and prevention activities. This needs to be our first priority.

4/Currently, and staggeringly, funding does not require that programs demonstrate a measurable reduction in suicide and mental health risk factors in the communities in which they are delivered. This needs to be our second priority.

5/What this means is we are not accumulating data or research evidence of ‘what works’. If we don’t evaluate programs & accumulate evidence, we have no hope of informing future practice to halt the intergenerational transmission of suicide risk. This needs to be a third priority.

6/Additionally, we are the only Indigenous culture in the world that has a virtual absence of mental health prevalence data. Until we have a widely accepted methodology for screening early stages of mental ill health & suicide risk, early intervention will remain elusive;

7/evidence based programs are not able to be determined and treatment efficacy determined for at risk Aboriginal Ppl. This needs to be our fourth concurrent priority.

8/There are actually two tragedies here; the continued loss of the beautiful young lives through suicide, and secondly, that all efforts to fund an adequate response capable of applying the science of what prevents suicide have failed.

9/When suicide becomes entrenched, approaches need to be long term and sustainable. Report after report has pointed to the need for ‘evidence-based approaches’ but has anyone questioned why this continues to remain elusive?

10/When you have spent your life’s work working in Indigenous suicide prevention and self funding evidence based research, as I have, I can also tell you that despite extensive training the complex and devastating issue of suicide prevention challenges you at every level.

11/It challenges your core values about the right of people to choose death over life; it stretches you therapeutically despite your training in best practice; and it terrifies you that you have missed something long after you have left your at-risk client.

12/The nature of suicide risk is that it changes. Being able to predict & monitor suicide risk takes yrs of clinical & cultural expertise and well-honed clinical insight and judgement. Throw culture into the mix and this becomes a rare set of skills held by few in this country.

13/Indeed, a senate inquiry in December found that not only are services lacking in remote and rural areas of Australia, but culturally appropriate services were often not accessible.

14/Funding decisions that are unsupported by clinical and cultural expertise in suicide prevention must be challenged and redirected in the best way possible. Toward the evidence.

15/Instead we have inquiry after inquiry, consultation after consultation, statistics and mortality data quoted by media purely to satisfy the latest ‘click bait’ 24-hour news cycle headline.

16/On top of that, there are continued calls from those who receive large amounts of funding that they need “more funding”. It is time to start demanding evidence of what works when we look at funded programs. Until we can get these answers, rates will continue to escalate.

17/I am as concerned that the primary focus is on encouraging people to simply ‘talk’ about suicide without the clinical and cultural best practice programs and therapies available to respond to this awareness raising, particularly in our remote areas.

18/Wasted opportunities for prevention are like an endless cycle in which money is thrown at band aid, crisis driven, reactive, non data driven, ill-informed responses that disappear as fast as the latest headlines. Its time to demand evidence of what works when fund programs.

19/Until we can get these answers, rates will continue to escalate. The time is now to make these changes & ask these questions. I am up for the challenge & have spent my life building & self-funding evidence of what can work to halt these tragic rates in Aboriginal communities

20/Will the decision makers join me in finding evidence-based ways to address this or continue to throw money at approaches and programs that are simply not working?
Aboriginal people deserve better, our future generations deserve better

indigenousx.com.au/aboriginal-sui…