Promote Living

Promote Living is a suicide prevention training project run by the Perth Primary Care Network in collaboration with the Western Australian Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention.

The project consists of a series of training sessions for Western Australian GPs and nurses, with the objective of better equipping them to assess and manage people who are at risk of self-harm and suicide. Promote Living also trains people in the community about issues surrounding self-harm and suicide. 

About the project coordinator

Allan Huggins is a psychologist currently employed as a projector coordinator for the Perth Primary Care Network.

Aims

Promote Living aims to increase awareness and better attune people in the engagement and management of people who are at risk. With specific reference to GPs and nurses, the project intends to give them skills and resources to assess people accurately and efficiently.

Says Allan Huggins: ‘If a school nurse is working in a school and she is confronted with a 16-year-old boy who’s very depressed and there are issues going on in his life, she would be trained to be able to assess that young man’s risk in terms of self-harm and suicide.’

Program duration and origination

Promote Living was conceived in 2005. The training programs commenced in October 2008 and will run until June 2009.

Location

Promote Living rolls out training programs throughout the catchment area of the Perth Primary Care Network. This area spans approximately 3,171km² and includes the western suburbs, Perth metropolitan north-eastern and eastern area and forms approximately 45 percent of the catchment of the North Metropolitan Area Health Service. The catchment area is diverse and includes the central business district, western suburbs, medium to high density residential settings, low density/semi-rural settings and primary industries including agriculture and wine making.

Activities

Promote Living conducts training programs for health professionals.

‘We will be doing training programs for GPs and nurses,’ says Huggins. ‘This involves a training person from the ministerial council, who’s a qualified gatekeeper trainer, and myself.’

The project will also train 100 non-professional men from four suburbs in Perth: Cannington, Girraween, Spearwood and Bassendean.

Says Huggins: ‘These suburbs have lower socio-economic communities and more people at risk. We are actually bringing men in to give them a training program which is called SafeTalk. The program attunes ordinary people in the community about issues around self-harm and suicide.’

Challenges

One of the ongoing challenges the project faces concerns the topography of Western Australia and the ability to roll out programs across such a large geographical body.

‘It is a massive piece of coordination,’ says Huggins. ‘We’re rolling out 17 or 18 training programs across a very big state. The size of our state is a third of Australia and the logistics are quite difficult.’

The content of the Promote Living training programs emphasises the importance of tackling the male suicide rate. Thus spreading awareness about men’s issues poses an ongoing challenge.

‘80% of all suicides in Australia are males,’ says Huggins. ‘Therefore we need to become particularly attuned to men’s issues in the Australian culture which may lead them to points of self-harm and suicide.

‘Men are less articulate about their health needs than women and they tend to keep emotional issues to themselves. Therefore we have to attune doctors and nurses working in the community to that fact…and the best way to approach it.’

There are also logistical concerns such as selecting venues, catering, collaborating staff and running on time.

‘It is a big challenge, there’s no two ways about it,’ says Huggins. ‘But it’s a worthwhile challenge because the stakes are high.’

Evaluation

Promote Living will be evaluated by the University of WA. The project also conducts internal evaluation, which involves sending questionnaires to health professionals prior to and after their training.

Umbrella organisation

Perth Primary Care Network.

Project partners

• Lifeline
• M.A.N. (Men’s Advisory Network)

Contact

For further information contact the Perth Primary Care Network on (08) 9376 9200 or via email.