Dr Jaelea Skehan OAM is the Director of Everymind, a national Institute working from their regional base in Newcastle and dedicated to the prevention of mental ill-health and the prevention of suicide. She is a registered psychologist, has a PhD focussed on suicide prevention and holds a conjoint appointment with the College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. Between 2019 and 2020, Jaelea took leave from her substantive position at Everymind to lead the National Suicide Prevention Taskforce, supporting the work of the National Suicide Prevention Adviser.
Session title: Integrating lived experience, research, and practice knowledge in suicide prevention
Delivering a whole of government, whole of community and whole of person approach to suicide prevention requires a shift from a predominantly health-led and crisis driven approach to a more comprehensive approach that provides support much earlier and in a way that recognises and responds to the various social, community and individual drivers of distress. It is clear that to achieve this, what we do needs to shift. But the ’way’ we design and implement those approaches much also shift. There is a clear and pressing need for new types of research, more flexible methods of translating research into practice, and for service models and programs that draw together, in real time, the best available knowledge from lived experience, research, and practice. This presentation will outline some of the opportunities and challenges for a more integrated knowledge translation approach, drawing on Everymind’s work with families, friends and caregivers as a case-study.
