Eastern Health, one of Melbourne’s largest metropolitan public health services, has become the first clinical healthcare provider to commence our Suicide Prevention Accreditation Program for two of its services.
HOPE Service
The HOPE (Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement) initiative provides support for people at the point of hospital discharge that are identified as at-risk of suicide and/or repeated intentional self-harm. HOPE aims to prevent avoidable suicide attempts and death by suicide by providing those at risk with practical, tailored and accessible psychosocial support in the community for a period of up to three months post discharge from hospital. The program also supports the person’s carers and families to identify and build the protective factors that our clinicians know reduce the risk of suicide attempt/completed.
Brief Intervention Team
Brief Intervention team provide short term support (six sessions) using Brief Solution Focused Therapy approach for people with thoughts of suicide. Consumers are referred to the clinic via various areas within Eastern Health Mental Health such as psychiatric triage, crisis
teams, emergency department or community mental health teams.
The HOPE and BIT team Lived Experience Workforce said, “Promoting hope and connection in life for our community is the preferred future of Eastern Health Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement (HOPE) service and the Brief Intervention Team (BIT).
Lived Experience led genuine Co-design and Co-production of our Zero Suicide Strategy which underpins our focused and purposeful approach to Suicide Prevention. Paramount to striving toward this preferred future is accreditation with the Suicide Prevention Australia Standards for Quality Improvement”.
The Suicide Prevention Accreditation Program supports organisations to implement safe, high quality and effective suicide prevention and postvention programs in Australia. We are striving to ensure that every person who needs support can access a consistent, high quality and safe standard of care. To learn more, click here.
