Indigenous Network Suicide Intervention Skills Training

Program Overview

Suicide is the leading cause of death for young Australians aged 15 to 24 years. Recent findings reported that the suicide rates of Australia’s youth are at an all-time 10-year high and the rates of suicide for Indigenous youth are twice that of other Australians. Despite these concerning statistics, there is currently a lack of culturally appropriate suicide prevention training programs available for Indigenous communities in Australia. A systematic review found that gatekeeper training may be a promising suicide intervention method for Indigenous communities. Gatekeeper training, hereafter referred to as ‘responder training’ has some integral strengths, as it allows adaptations of the training to be tailored for different communities by addressing specific issues that may be present within these communities.  This type of training allows teaching familiar community members using existing relationships to help those at risk.

The Indigenous Network Suicide Intervention Skills Training (INSIST) program is a multi-faceted suicide prevention training program that targets at-risk Indigenous youth. The program aims to increase knowledge and awareness of suicide risk factors by developing a sense of connectedness between at-risk groups and health services and support groups. The training will provide participants or ‘responders’, the willingness to intervene with, and refer at-risk youth to appropriate health services and support groups. The training program has been developed with extensive consultation with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The INSIST program structure is a wrap-around model that has been designed and developed with extensive community collaboration and consultation. It is important for Indigenous community members to be given an opportunity to undertake training using a world renowned, gold-standard suicide intervention program that has been culturally adapted. This leads to community empowerment, which is vital for successful and safer communities.