The way back Information Resources Project:Needs and views of people who have attempted suicide and their family and friends. Presented by Jaelea Skehan, Hunter Institute of Mental Health and project working group members at National Suicide Prevention Conference, July 2014.

1. The way back
Information Resources Project
Needs and views of people who have attempted
suicide and their family members and friends
Presented by: Jaelea Skehan, Hunter Institute of Mental Health,
De Beckman-Hoyle and Mic Eales, Project Working Group Members.

2. As a consequence of their experiences, people who
have attempted suicide and their family and friends
have unique expertise and knowledge about the
types of services and resources that are most
responsive to their needs.
But how often do we involve people with lived
experience of suicidal behaviour in our suicide
prevention activities?

3. Integrating the Lived Experience
Our commitment to people with lived experience through the way back
project was actioned in 3 ways:
1. Representation on Project Working Group
2. Researching and documenting the needs and views of people with
lived experience
3. Directly incorporating views and experiences into written
resources.

4. 1. Project Working Group
• Staff from beyondblue, staff from HIMH, two people with lived
experience
• A way of ensuring lived experience was integrated into decision
making process for the project
• Protocol developed to ensure meaningful participation, support and
remuneration
• One position each for an individual who has attempted suicide and a
family member/friend.

5. Reflections on the
project governance and
inclusion of those with
lived experience
De Blackman-Hoyle

6. 2. Researching and documenting views
• HIMH worked with beyondblue’s blueVoices and Suicide Prevention
Australia to invite community members to participate in the consultation.
• Participants needed to be over 18 years, not currently experiencing
symptoms of mental distress, and the suicide attempt had to have occurred
more than 12 months ago.
• Following a screening process, interviews were held with a total of 37
people of whom 22 were individuals who had attempted suicide, 9 were
family members/friends and 6 fell into both categories.
• Participants had an average age of 46 years (range 19 – 79 years)
• The study had research ethics approval from HNEHRC.

7. Major themes
1. Suicide and suicide attempts are highly stigmatised in the
community.
“the biggest and the oldest problem is the stigma attached to it.”
(individual)
“People don’t know how to react… they don’t know whether or not to
talk about it.” (family member)
The stigma stems from powerful societal institutions such as religions
(suicide is a sin), the law (suicide as a crime), medicine (suicide as a
mental illness) as well as general cultural values that praise ‘toughness’
when individuals are faced with adversity.

8. Major themes
• Stigma can be manifested in notions about suicide circulating in the
community for example “suicide is taking the easy way out”.
Participants noted that such views were destructive and wrong:
“ its actually a pretty difficult decision to make. You really can’t be that
weak.” (individual)
“They don’t understand what the pain is like … it is just beyond
comprehension and you’ll just do anything to escape from it … You don’t
think rationally about what will happen to your family. (individual)

9. Major themes
2. People who are suicidal can be reluctant to disclose their feelings
and seek help.
• Individuals don’t seek help because they are too ashamed and think
that others won’t understand and/or cannot help:
“I was desperate to speak to someone, anyone, about how I was feeling.
And I felt I couldn’t and this made it really hard.” (individual)

10. Major themes
• Community members rarely discuss the subject or know how to
respond in supportive ways
“Its one of those unspoken subjects that needs to be brought to the fore in
the community to be understood [in order that people] can provide
compassion and support to those who both attempt suicide and those who
have family members and friends who may be impacted.” (family member)
• Stigma can influence views of service providers
“The doctors … they were really hostile towards me … They get really
pissed off because they are trying to save lives and here you are coming in
after you have tried to take your own life.” (individual)

11. Findings: What information to provide
1. Knowing that you are not alone – hearing other people’s stories
“I felt like I was an outsider, I felt like I was the only one in the world who
felt like this … but after reading other people’s stories and found out I
wasn’t alone, that helped a lot.” (individual)
“When it happens to people, they do feel alone and they feel they’re the
only ones and its not happened it anyone else and they don’t understand
the high prevalence of it (family member)

12. Findings: What information to provide
2. Information about why people attempt suicide
“Its very scary for everyone in that it is such an unknown … why would they
want to do that?” (family member)
3. Practical information and strategies on issues such as:
– how to how to look after yourself and others
– how to talk about what has happened
– warning signs and how to respond
– where to get help

13. Reflections
• Obtaining research ethics for consultations like these is important:
– Ensures ethical conduct, confidentiality, safety mechanisms
– Opportunity to publish results in peer-reviewed journals
• But, research ethics brings challenges
– Criteria will often exclude some people and their views (n=11)
– Reimbursement of lived experience not allowed under research ethics

14. 3. Incorporating lived experience in resources
• Acknowledging the
contributions of people
with lived experience on
the opening page.

15. Incorporating lived experience in resources
• Using quotes from
research participants
(with permission)
throughout the
resources.

16. Reflections on the
consultation and what this
means for suicide prevention
work.
Dr Mic Eales

17. Conclusions
• People with lived experience of suicide attempt(s) (including family
members and friends) are an important target group for suicide
prevention activities.
• People with lived experience of suicide attempt(s) can and should
be involved in the development and/ or delivery of suicide
prevention strategies.
• We need to continue the national conversation about how best to
integrate lived experience in suicide prevention strategies.

18. Questions?
“After my suicide attempt six years ago, I kept
remembering a quote from Winston Churchill: ‘When
you are going through hell…just keep going’. This gave
me great faith that somehow I would find a way out.
Which I did and I’m really enjoying life now.”