Overview of the DHB Suicide Prevention Plans Heather Knewstubb Senior Project Manager Ministry of Health

Background DHBs were required to develop a suicide prevention plan to facilitate cross- agency collaboration and when necessary activate a postvention plan to reduce the risk of suicide contagion Draft plans were received by the Ministry of Health between April and June 2015 Hutt, Capital and Coast and Wairarapa DHBs submitted a regional plan A combined plan was received from Auckland and Waitemata DHBs Plans were reviewed by members of the Ministry’s Suicide Prevention Implementation Working Group and feedback was provided

Final Plans On 20 July 2015, all DHBs submitted their final Suicide Prevention and Postvention plans These were reviewed by Ministry staff - specifically identifying whether or not the feedback received in April had been incorporated Some follow up was necessary with a few DHBs; in particular to clarify that a postvention plan was in place The Ministry is now reassured that all DHBs do have a process to follow, should this difficult situation arise

Coordinated approach All DHBs acknowledge the importance of a coordinated approach In some DHBs this was already occurring For other DHBs, the process of undertaking a stock-take enabled them to see gaps and consider how to mitigate them As DHBs are taking on a leadership role, this includes facilitating coordination within the community Three DHBs, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Mid Central are either scoping an Suicide Prevention Coordinator position or intend to employ one to assist with this coordination

Priorities All DHBs acknowledge Māori are a priority group in their communities All DHBs acknowledge that it is vitally important to connect well with local Māori for both prevention and postvention activities All DHBs have identified a range of priority communities and approaches. As expected these vary across the country but include: Youth Men Pasifika LGBTIQ

Training All DHBs have indicated that gatekeeper training is an important component of their suicide prevention work Community members, community leaders, family, whānau and health workers are all to receive training Some DHBs identified other groups to receive suicide prevention and resilience training such as: Workplaces Rural communities Schools/tertiary education institutions

Governance All DHBs employed a signing out process that demonstrated that higher management had been involved in the plans This was particularly evident in the final plans after feedback from the Ministry

Final thoughts…. The Ministry appreciates the work that went into the development of the plans This is important work and the Ministry will continue to support DHBs as much as possible We would like some feedback about the Suicide Prevention Toolkit for DHBs

Toolkit Review Questions How useful was the toolkit when developing your suicide prevention plan? What was missing? Do you have any examples of good practice that you think would be suitable to go into the next iteration of the toolkit? Any other comments