Thread by @IndigenousX

My Op-Ed was triggered by Fed Govt announcing it allocated $134M funding into Indigenous suicide prevention. Taking suicide mortality rates this crudely translates to $248,000 per suicide death annually – without adding State funding into the mix. (1/20)

tinyurl.com/ym44sst7

We have enormous amounts of funding for this critical area; yet suicides continue to escalate. Our Indigenous youth are dying by suicide at SIX 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. (2/20)

I am not privy to how funding decisions are made and I have ZERO funding for my services, research or programs; but the gaps are sadly too clear and have been for decades. (3/20)

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. (4/20)

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. (5/20)

What this means is that we're 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 is our third priority. (6/20)

Until we have a widely accepted methodology to screen early stages of mental health and suicide risk, early intervention will remain elusive; evidence-based programs cannot be determined and treatment efficacy cannot be monitored. This is our fourth priority. (7/20)

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. (8/20)

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? (9/20)

When you've spent your life’s work 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. (10/20)

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. (11/20)

The nature of suicide risk is that it changes. Being able to predict and monitor suicide risk takes years of clinical and cultural expertise & well-honed clinical insight and judgement. Throw culture in and this becomes a rare set of skills held by few in this country. (12/20)

Indeed, FOUR successive inquiries found that not only are services lacking in remote and rural areas of Australia, but culturally appropriate services were often not accessible. (13/20)

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. (14/20)

Instead we hv inquiry after inquiry, consultation after consultation, stats and mortality data quoted by media purely to satisfy the latest ‘clickbait’ 24hr news cycle headline. There are continued calls from those who receive large funding that they need “more funding". (15/20)

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. (16/20)

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. (17/20)

Wasted opportunities for prevention are like an endless cycle in which money is thrown at band aid, crisis driven, reactive and ill-informed responses that disappear as fast as the latest headlines. (18/20)

I spent my life building & self-funding evidence of what can work to halt these tragic rates in Aboriginal communities & among our people.
Will the decisionmakers join me in finding evidence-based ways to address this or continue to throw money at programs that dont work? (19/20)

Aboriginal people deserve better, our future generations deserve better. It’s why I funded the development of the Dr Tracy Westerman Indigenous Psychology Scholarship Program in 2019.

Read about it here: thejilyainstitute.com.au/about-the-scho… (20/20)