Tuesday, 28th April National Suicide Prevention Conference 2026

We're delighted to announce that Ian Thorpe AM will deliver the Diego de Leo keynote address.

With 9 Olympic medals and 11 World Championship titles, Ian is one of the most successful sportspeople Australia has ever produced.

Out of the pool, Ian continues to excel as a leading advocate for youth, First Nations and LGBTIQA+ communities. In 2012, he received the Human Rights Medal for his work fighting for better services for Indigenous children in remote communities. In 2019, he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to youth and Indigenous education, and swimming.

Currently, Ian continues to serve as Patron and Board Member for youth mental health organisation, ReachOut, and as Ambassador for Australian Marriage Equality, Invictus Games Sydney and AIME.

Panel Discussion: National Suicide Prevention Outcomes Framework - Understanding suicide through measurements that matter 
Time: 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM

Panel Members:  

• Imbi Pyman, Lived Experience Partnership Group Co-chair 
• Jordan Frith, Lived Experience Partnership Group Member 
• Nieves Murray, Advisory Board Member and CEO, Suicide Prevention Australia
• Professor Nicholas Procter, Advisory Board Chair 
• Professor Myfanwy Maple, University of New England - Qualitative data partner 

Since the release of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025-2035 (the Strategy) in February last year, the National Suicide Prevention Office has been continuing to progress robust, evidence-based insights and advice to ensure an effective suicide prevention system. This session will provide updates on work following the release of the Strategy, including the development of the National Suicide Prevention Outcomes Framework (Outcomes Framework).

For the first time in Australia, the Outcomes Framework will provide the insights needed to better support people and a more complete picture of how to prevent suicidal distress from occurring in the first place. 
The Outcomes Framework will markedly improve the measurement of the progress and impact of suicide prevention efforts and importantly guide continued improvement.

This session will provide an overview of the Outcomes Framework and how it improves on what has been done in the past, including the mixed methods approach to combining quantitative and qualitative data to better understand the experiences of people whose lives have been impacted by suicide.

Key partners will speak to the development of the shared goals and person-centred outcomes, and what they mean for people in suicide prevention.

• Suicide Prevention Training: Working together to build confidence in the Alcohol & Other Drug sector - Alison Ryder and Ryan Webster
• Cultural Considerations in Suicide Prevention Strategies The Lived Experience of African Australians - Nyachan Nn Nyak
• Helping parents help their teens: Evaluating ReachOut Australia’s Parent Coaching Service - Camilla Chaudhary
• What do people working in suicide prevention need to turn knowledge into action?   - Lennart Reifels
• From Fragmentation to Collaboration: Suicide Prevention in Eating Disorders - Sarah Giles
• Predicting Area-level Suicide Risk Using the Australian Linked Administrative Data - Ali Furkan Kalay
• Mixed Methods Evaluation of Suicide Imagery Characteristics in Relation to Suicide Behaviour - Ann Martin
• Longitudinal analysis of mental and chronic comorbidity networks in the hilda cohort - Gayani Munasinghe
• The National Ambulance Surveillance System: using public health data to inform policy   - Rowan P Ogeil
• Understanding blast exposure and mTBI in military Special Forces: implications for suicide prevention - Paul Scanlan
• Poster Presentation - Online mental health discouse: stigma and the need for digital gatekeeper  - soontae An
• Listening, Learning, and Co-Creating: Co-Designing a Digital Tool for Parents to Prevent Youth Self-Harm - Caitlin C Thirlwell
• Strengthening Cultural Confidence of School Communities for First Nation's Suicide Postvention - Eliza Munro
• Building bridges to hope: nationally agreed components of universal aftercare for suicide prevention - Mitchell Rice-Brading, Sharon Marra-Brown and Maia Grange
• GLASS EMPTY and The Whisperer Team - a community-driven suicide prevention strategy trialed in SA. - Jonathan Hart
• From crisis to creation how making meaning supports suicide prevention and social connection - Zoe Atterbury
• Pain into Purpose A Mother’s Mission to Change the Narrative Around Eating Disorders in Boys - Mia Bannister
• Understanding suicidality in fathers to young children via lived experience insights  - Casey Hosking
• An innovative, dual-pathway participatory approach embedding lived/living experience of suicidality within a 2-year research program - Katherine Petrie
• My Voice, My Words: Embedding Consumer Voices in Mental Health Clinical Notes - Amy Power and Tanya Paradine
• Beyond tokenism safe storytelling as suicide prevention - Luke M Randall
• My lived experience journey from carer to bereaved to volunteer to professional - Julie Rickard
• What supports and hinders sustainability in suicide prevention peer work? A systems perspective - Ava Riddell
• An increase in the retention rate of suicide bereavement support groups - Saori Yamashita
• NSW Health's approach to means reduction - Darren Wagner and Alison Ryder
• Embodying Resilience: Reconstructing the Self–Grounded Theory of Male Construction Worker Wellbeing in New Zealand.   - Mohsin Ali
• Relationship breakdown and suicidal thoughts and behaviours among Australian men: who is most at risk? - Constantine CG Gasser and Agatha AF Faulkner
• Rethinking help-seeking: is social support the missing pathway? - Simone Scotti Requena
• From intention to help-seeking: does it reduce suicidal ideation among men? - Simone SSR Scotti Requena
• Learnings from a multi-year evaluation of NSW Health’s flagship suicide prevention initiatives - Sharon Marra-Brown, Dennis Lam, Hugh Miller and Jade Maloney

This session is located on a floor above the other sessions. 

• Working with lived experience advisors to shape research to support parents of suicidal teens - Demee Rheinberger and Sally A Pollard
• Stronger Scaffolding: Supporting Vulnerable Clients in Superannuation Systems - Brendan Maher
• Transformational storytelling: how lived experience advocacy shapes the wellbeing and civic engagement of young people - Christopher Wainwright and Daisy Winney

• Lived experience, Aboriginal-led and youth-focused Safe Haven models in NSW - Sally Lee
• Strong Minds, Strong Workforce: Culture Care Connect in the Pilbara - Kesi-Maree Prior

National Suicide Prevention Outcomes Framework – how to use it in your context 

The National Suicide Prevention Outcomes Framework (Outcomes Framework) will work as a ‘compass’ designed to guide improvements in suicide prevention and activate effective system reform.  

With the National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025 – 2035 setting the direction for change and aiming to unify efforts across governments, services and the community, the Outcomes Framework will provide the needed evidence to measure meaningful progress.  

This session will provide insights and examples of how the Outcomes Framework can be used across a range of areas including policy, programs, research and within communities. A panel of professionals representing people with lived and living experience, commonwealth portfolios, data, research and the sector will discuss how the Outcomes can be used across contexts. 

The National Suicide Prevention Office and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare will discuss how the indicators support the measurement of the outcomes, focusing on the mixed methods approach of combining, analysing, interpreting and translating both quantitative and qualitative data measures in a comprehensive and meaningful way.  

• Digital frontiers in suicide prevention: AI simulation, real-time monitoring and what works - Natasha Josifovski, Elise Carrotte, Eleanor Bailey, Alex Provost and Jess Wilcox
• Changes in self-determination among digital suicide safety plan users - Christopher Rainbow

• Suicide and self-harm data and reporting at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare  - Chris Killick-Moran, Victoria Wilson and Matthew Spittal
• Beyond the either-or debate: integrated pathways for suicidal crisis support - Sharon Marra-Brown, Mitchell Rice-Brading and Alexandra Lorigan

• Uniting services across fragmented systems to support people with complex trauma in suicidal distress. - Alison Asche and Mark Bekerman
• Geographic intersections between adverse childhood experiences and suicidal/self-injurious behaviour in New South Wales, Australia - Oliver J Watkeys

• The COMPAS Suicide Prevention Program: Outcomes and Updates - Thomas McAlpine
• Bridging Tradition and Technology for Holistic Wellbeing: Digital Innovations from the Ngawurramangajirri Project - Josie Povey

• Lived Experience Panel: Understanding and addressing the suicide prevention needs of multicultural Australia   - Ambrose Mareng, LewChing Yip, Zinab Al Hilaly, Imeleta Lia-Norris and Sachi Hirayama
• Beyond inclusive practice:  Creating autonomous spaces for LGBTIQA+ Lived Experience Voices - Anna McFee

• Suicide prevention in Hong Kong: Pushing boundaries while building bridges - Paul Yip
• Finding rays of hope in suicide prevention - Dan Reidenberg

If you have purchased a full-conference NSPC26 ticket, you are entitled to a free ticket to the Welcome Reception.
Drinks and nibbles provided.