AUSTRALIA: Australia’s New Suicide Prevention Advisor Says Culturally Specific Support “Critical”
September 13, 2019
Australia’s first suicide prevention advisor is calling for a culturally competent approach to addressing suicide. Christine Morgan is currently on a three-month tour of the country talking with communities about their experiences with suicide. Since more than a quarter of people in Australia are born overseas, Ms. Morgan said prevention programs should be culturally and linguistically specific to the communities they serve. Ms. Morgan also emphasized the importance of providing support to indigenous Australians and addressing environmental risk factors for suicide. “Let’s really take a good hard look at what are those societal factors, those social determinants—housing, education, experience of veterans, trauma. How can we start to bring those to the table and wrap them into our initiatives?”
Spark Extra! Learn more about culturally competent approaches to suicide prevention.