Poster Round Three National Suicide Prevention Conference 2026

Gendered, interpersonal violence significantly increases the likelihood of victim-survivors experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviours. The AIHW (2025) report that domestic and family violence, and child abuse and neglect are leading causes of suicide in Australia. Yet there are few existing approaches to suicide prevention which are trauma-informed and suitable for clinicians working in trauma-specific community services (Ferguson et al, 2025).  

This quality improvement project synthesizes current evidence on trauma and suicide to develop revised clinical approaches for screening, assessing, and responding to suicidality within community-based, trauma-specific healthcare services. The services within our division are provided to victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence as well as young people impacted by trauma more broadly.  

The Prevention Orientated Risk Formulation framework (Pisani, 2016) is proposed as the foundation for this approach, as it enables clinicians to account for the specific contexts of gendered, interpersonal violence during suicide risk assessment. To ensure the framework is both trauma-informed and feasible for implementation in non-mental health settings, context-specific adaptations will be developed through co-design with staff and consumers.

Grounded in the experiences of both staff and consumers, this project will develop an approach that enhances safety and meets the needs of all stakeholders. Staff engagement will involve a baseline survey to assess current levels of knowledge, and confidence in suicide risk assessment, and collaborative workshops to identify gaps and barriers in existing procedures and to explore what is needed for effective, sustainable implementation. The co-development of trauma-informed adaptations will be informed by consumer perspectives on their needs and preferences when clinicians discuss suicidality, ensuring the approach centres person safety, dignity, and autonomy. Lastly, external stakeholder consultations will occur to enable shared learnings between community service providers. 

The project will deliver: 

• Revised suicide prevention procedures integrating the Prevention Orientated Risk Formulation framework into clinical risk assessment protocols, specifically adapted for trauma-specific community health settings 

• Comprehensive training and implementation plan supporting staff education, skill development, and sustained uptake across the division to ensure consistent, competent application 

• Trauma-informed protocols that recognize the intersection of trauma and suicidality 

• Enhanced safety outcomes for both consumers and staff through evidence-based, co-designed approaches to suicide risk assessment and response that reduce harm and support recovery