'Have your say on aftercare services in Tasmania' consultation for LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians

Primary Health Tasmania has recently engaged Jane Austin Consulting and Everymind to work together on a project which aims to improve and expand suicide aftercare services in Tasmania. This involves extensive consultation with service providers and the community to ensure their views are gathered and incorporated into outcomes and recommendations for future commissioning of aftercare services.

Have your say on aftercare services in Tasmania.

Do you have ideas on how we can increase the availability, accessibility and quality of aftercare services for people following a suicide attempt or suicidal crisis?

If you live in Tasmania and are LGBTIQA+ identifying, we’d like to invite you to join an online consultation to share your views. Tasmania' LGBTIQA+ support, education and advocacy organisation Working it Out (WIO) is co-facilitating the consultation with Jane Austin Consulting (with support from Everymind).

Aftercare is crucial in ensuring people are supported towards compassionate, effective and appropriate support services to help prevent further self-harm or suicide attempts. It’s important that the right support reaches individuals at the right time. This may include support for families, friends, carers, allies and support people.

What to expect:

An online group consultation session, co-facilitated by Andrew Badcock from WIO & Jane Austin from Jane Austin Consulting, to discuss questions such as:

1. What are the unique needs of LGBTIQA+ identifying Tasmanians and how can these be addressed in aftercare services?
2. What works well in current aftercare services now and what could be improved?
3. What workforce considerations are important to ensure aftercare services meet the needs of LGBTIQA+ identifying Tasmanians?
4. Reflecting on the role that families, friends, carers and allies can play in supporting someone in suicidal distress, how do you think their engagement with aftercare services can be improved?

What are the outcomes of this project?
A report will be prepared for Primary Health Tasmania on what defines best-practice universal aftercare for Tasmania.

You will not be asked to share your personal experience of suicide:

These consultations aim to better understand the expectations, accessibility, features and other relevant elements of a universal aftercare model for the Tasmanian context. The results will help guide improvements and expansion of aftercare services in the region to help reduce suicide attempts and suicidal crisis. You will not be asked to share details of any personal experiences of suicide.

An information pack will be shared with you once you register. This will include information about the project, an agenda, and what to expect. Before you take part, we will ask for your consent to collect information you share.

Important things to remember:

We will not include your name or any personal details in any of the reports developed.

There will be an LGBTIQA+ peer support worker at the meeting, and you will be provided with a list of services that you can contact for support.

Fees and payment:

Participants will receive an $80 cash-card as an honorarium to help with some of the costs of being part of the meeting.

Where can I get support?
We can all be impacted by discussing these topics in different ways. Please connect with your supports if needed. If you, or anyone else is in immediate danger, call 000.
Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14
13YARN: 13 92 76
MensLine Australia: 1300 789 978
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
SANE Australia Helpline: 1800 18 SANE (7263)
Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service: 1800 011 046
QLife: 1800 184 527 (3pm - 12am)
A Tasmanian Lifeline: 1800 98 44 34 (8am-8pm)

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What is aftercare?

Aftercare services are services provided to individuals following a suicidal crisis or attempt. This may include involvement of families, friends, allies, carers and support people. The aim of aftercare is to ensure that all people who have experienced a suicide attempt or suicidal crisis have access to, and are supported towards, compassionate, effective and appropriate support services. For more information about aftercare, this project, and available support services, please download the fact sheet here.

Background

This project aligns with the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement in which the Australian and state and territory governments agreed to an objective of universal aftercare.

Consultation

The consultation informing this project encompasses a consultation survey (which has concluded), key informant interviews, consultation workshops and three in-person round tables.

Consent and privacy considerations

It is important to know that your participation in the consultation is voluntary and people can withdraw at any time. The information that is shared in the consultation will be confidential to the consultation process and participants will not be identified in any reports nor through the report itself. All information gathered will be managed in line with the Jane Austin Consulting Privacy policy and the Everymind Privacy Policy.

(This project has been funded by Primary Health Tasmania (Tasmania PHN) under the Australian Government’s Primary Health Networks Program)