Collaboration to achieve valuable research outcomes
As our research and policy arm, the Centre for Better Relationships plays a crucial role in deepening our understanding of social issues so we can design better mental health services that help improve quality of life for all Australians.
Each research project enables us to uncover and address gaps across our service delivery and highlight social issues in our community.
The Centre’s research initiatives this year focused on three areas – The Way Back Support Service, suicide in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and the Child Contact Service – and gave us a clear direction for next year’s priorities.
The effectiveness of a suicide aftercare model
The Way Back Support (TWBS) service is built on the psychosocial model of care. Yet there still isn’t enough evidence of this model’s effectiveness in the prevention and intervention of suicidal behaviours.
As a starting point, the Centre has completed a discussion paper on the effectiveness of using psychosocial models of care for those who have attempted suicide.
The paper speaks to a broad audience interested in effective suicide interventions and uses general statistics on suicide to drive home the importance of such models of care.
A draft of this paper is currently being reviewed by the Research and Advocacy Committee.
The Centre also produced a report on TWBS and its successful implementation by Better Place Australia which has also been submitted to the Committee for review.
Both discussion papers will be released this year.
Suicide in multicultural communities
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities have wide-ranging views of suicide and suicidal behaviours that are largely shaped by family, friends and cultural stigma.
Stigma silences and isolates an individual with suicidal thoughts. It also prevents those who have previously attempted suicide or who have lost a loved one to suicide from accessing life-saving support.
The Centre has worked across CALD communities in suicide prevention and has investigated the psychosocial risk factors in these communities for suicidal behaviour like stigma and discrimination, acculturation, and service navigation.
The Centre has now outsourced an opinion piece on our service as a proven pathway of support and suicide prevention within the CALD communities. This piece is under review and will be approved soon.
Expanding our Child Contact Service
Better Place Australia launched our second Child’s Contact Service in Sale in February to increase the access to local and affordable family services in regional Victoria.
The Centre is currently evaluating the program to understand its achievements and more importantly, the priority areas of improvement. The evaluation focuses on the voice of the child and involves in-depth interviews with parents and staff to achieve a holistic view of the program.
The Centre’s other highlights
- A Transitions into Aged Care research project that explores the mental health and wellbeing of older people moving into a Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF)
- Publication of the Respect My Home report
- An ongoing discussion paper on elder abuse
Looking ahead to 2024
The Centre has earmarked elder abuse as one of its two priorities for next year in terms of developing a dual response model of care for perpetrators and victim-survivors.
The second priority is establishing a strong connection and trust with CALD communities in our work around suicide prevention and intervention.