SANE Mental Illness and Bereavement Project
|
SANE Mental Ilness and Bereavement Project testimonial
This testimonial was written by Margi Nunn. Her brother, who had depression, went missing in 1993 and has not been found.
‘The SANE Bereavement Project will undoubtedly assist and encourage services to provide better support for families. I wish our family could have had access to more help when my brother Peter went missing in 1993.
‘We can learn a great deal from the families and individuals who have contributed to this project: about their deep sadness, their frustrations and their practical needs. Their resilience and resourcefulness will also help professionals support others to find ways to live well with their grief and loss.’
|
|
The SANE Mental Illness Bereavement Project aims to improve services and support for family and friends of people with mental illness who have died by suicide or are missing. The program is managed by SANE Australia .
‘It was conceived,’ says project coordinator Sarah Coker, ‘because we realised from anecdotal evidence that often people who are bereaved by suicide aren’t receiving the support they need. Research also indicates that being bereaved by suicide doubles the risk of taking your life yourself.
‘It is therefore a prevention as well as postvention project. We support friends and family when somebody takes their own life or goes missing.’
Background
The SANE Mental Illness Bereavement Project is a national suicide prevention project that was established in April 2007.
About the project coordinator
Sarah Coker (SANE Australia Suicide Prevention Project Coordinator)
Sarah Coker has a background in mental health and was previously employed at SANE Australia as a helpline advisor and project officer. In the UK she worked at Kings College London as Academic Assistant to a Professor of Psychology and spent two years working on primary care projects for the National Health Service. Coker ranks her honours degree in Social Sciences and her ability to support people through SANE as her proudest achievements.
Model
The Mental Illness Bereavement Project uses three models. They are:
Diffusion of Innovation Model
This model encourages dissemination of information through trusted networks. Says Coker: ‘this involved establishing champions for the project. In this case, this was achieved through the projects reference group and key mental health and bereavement services. We then used those links to spread the message about the project, and to disseminate key learnings and take on education training.’
Train the Trainer Model
The Train the Trainer Model is based on adult learning theory and, says Coker, ‘is a great way of establishing learnings into organisations across a wide geographical area.’
Program Logic Model
The Program Logic Model is used to assess the design and delivery of public sector services. It has three conceptual elements: systems theory; scientific method; and program, organisational and fiscal accordance.
Activities
There are three major activities undertaken by the Mental Illness Bereavement Support Project.
Training workshops
Workshop sessions are for bereavement and mental health services professionals. They aim to raise awareness of issues that families face when somebody dies by suicide or goes missing.
Resources
Three fact sheets help support people who are bereaved. They are available to download and cover three topics:
Policy guidelines
The project is developing a bereavement policy that mental health services can access. This will enable services to have a more structured approach in how they respond to families if somebody dies by suicide.
Challenges
An ongoing challenge the Mental Illness Bereavement Project faces lies in forging and maintaining effective communication links between key stakeholders. This is achieved primarily by:
-
working closely with other groups (such as Compassionate Friends of Australia and the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement)
-
using mental health services newsletters such as the SANE News magazine and the SANE website
-
attending conferences
-
delivering presentations
Says Coker: ‘There is a lot of stigma associated with mental illness, which means families might be less willing to talk about it. There is stigma around suicide as well, so we saw them (families) as a particularly vulnerable group. We first of all needed to find out what they needed and to see if we could implement some supports for them.’
The Mental Illness Bereavement Project ascertained from consultations that bereaved friends and family want relevant support and information.
‘Only 17% of people in our survey received any information about bereavement support,’ says Coker, ‘so we saw that as an area we could improve on.’
Evaluation
SANE consults with an external evaluator from the School of Population Health at Melbourne University. The project has used evaluation techniques and findings from earlier stages of its inception, and these have informed current resource and enhancements. Further evaluation will take place as the project continues.
Lessons learned
-
Bereaved friends and family want timely information, practical supports and acknowledgement from mental health services
-
Bereaved friends and family are at a higher risk of suicide
-
Mental health workers need education about bereavement, and bereavement services need further education about mental illness.
Project partners
Compassionate Friends of Australia
The Australia Centre for Grief and Bereavement
The National Missing Persons Centre
The Association of Relatives and Friends of The Emotionally and Mentally Ill (ARAEFMI)
Mercy Western Grief Services
The Eastern Area Mental Health Service.
More information
Phone Sarah Coker on (03) 9682 5933 or email sarah.coker@sane.org.