The intersection of employment services and mental health support represents a critical juncture for identifying and addressing suicide ideation among job seekers. This point was highlighted in the “Consultation Draft of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy on page 22 table 8” "People who are unemployed are about twice as likely to die by suicide compared with people who are employed.50 As the period of unemployment increases, so does the risk of suicide. Research published in 2023 found a causal relationship between unemployment and suicide"
This presentation outlines the results of a pilot program training Perth Metropolitan job network agency staff in suicide prevention aimed at equipping them with the necessary skills to recognise signs of suicide ideation and effectively provide referral information for further support.
Participants were surveyed up 6 months after completing the training to see how often had they used the skills they had acquired, had their perception of the needs of their clients had changed and what issues were they seeing regularly.