Oral Presentation (max 20 mins) National Suicide Prevention Conference 2025

Suicide Safer Campuses: Creating networks that build capacity to support staff and students. (#91)

Bella Broadway 1 , Jack Graham 2
  1. Connection And Wellbeing Australia (CAWA), Perth, WA, Australia
  2. Student Life and Community| DVC Academic, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

In 2016 Connection And Wellbeing Australia (CAWA) and Curtin University began a partnership exploring how they could build suicide safer campuses.

 

This presentation will share the findings from 9+ years of project implementation including:

- How to reduce stigma about suicide and challenge myths and stereotypes across the University Campuses (measured by the stigma of suicide scale)

- Empowering a network of trained responders using staged intervention triage and community connectors

- Working with Lived Experience/ Peer Perspectives and balancing safety and challenge

- Building the capacity of staff and student wellbeing teams to respond to the level of need required

- How to engage with stakeholders and teams that may be resistant or hesitant 

- Creating safe, inclusive and intersectional spaces that support learning about suicide

- Postvention responses and how and when to continue prevention work safely to rebuild hope

- Connection and Collaboration, how to successfully manage multiple stakeholders

- Supporting regional and remote staff

- How learning to support others also develops workplace ability to manage Psychosocial Hazards 

- Maximising impacts on the wider community when providing workplace learning and development about suicide

- Framing suicide first aid skills as valuable micro-credentials

- How to apply the learnings from this project to other workplace and community contexts

 

The session will showcase best practice learnings that can be immediately applied to your own work.