Submitter Withdrawn - Post Notification National Suicide Prevention Conference 2026

Learnings from a multi-year evaluation of NSW Health’s flagship suicide prevention initiatives (#63)

Sharon Marra-Brown 1 , Dennis Lam 2 , Hugh Miller 2 , Jade Maloney 1
  1. ARTD Consultants, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Taylor Fry, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Towards Zero Suicides was a flagship $87 million investment by the NSW Government over three years, consisting of 15 suicide prevention initiatives to address priorities in the Strategic Framework for Suicide Prevention in NSW 2018-23.

A consortium led by ARTD Consultants, Taylor Fry, and a panel of suicide prevention experts was engaged by the NSW Mental Health Branch to evaluate 6 of the 15 Towards Zero Suicides (TZS) initiatives between 2020 and 2024. The suite of initiatives spanned the full continuum of supports for suicide prevention and included:

  • Safe Havens – offering safe spaces for people experiencing suicidal ideation in settings more welcoming than traditional emergency departments.
  • Suicide Prevention Outreach Teams (SPOT) – Mobile teams able to respond to people experiencing crisis
  • Zero Suicides in Care (ZSiC) – A broader initiative aimed at improving capacity of the health workforce to respond to suicidality and improve care pathways
  • Community Gatekeeper Training – Improving the community’s ability to identify people struggling with suicidality and provide support
  • Post Suicide Support – Services assisting families and friends of those who have died by suicide
  • am/ Youth Aftercare – A youth-focused aftercare service

Notable features across the suite included first-time delivery of services by people with lived and living experience of suicide (peer workers) and extensive co-design of service models with local communities.

The large and complex mixed-methods evaluation included process, outcomes and economic analysis, both at an individual initiative level and across the suite of six initiatives. The evaluation drew on a wide evidence base including surveys data, program data, interviews with a wide range of stakeholders and an extensive linked administrative dataset drawing on State and Commonwealth health service usage.

The session will cover the key findings from the evaluation and learnings that can be applied to future initiatives and the broader suicide prevention system. Notably this will include:

  • Lived experience at the centre - The vital role of those with lived experience across co-design, governance and service delivery.
  • Implementation that works in the real world – Practical learnings of what enabled delivery across a diverse range of settings and important considerations for future initiatives.
  • From data to decisions – Using administrative data to map service pathways through the health system, showing where care flows well, and where access and follow-up can be strengthened. It also highlights the large number of people who die by suicide without prior health system interaction.