Position Vacant: Auseinet Suicide Prevention Officer

The Project Officer – Suicide Prevention is responsible for developing a resource or set of resources that provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of the learnings derived from projects funded by the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
This position is full time for a period of six months.
For more information go to:http://www.flinders.edu.au/employment/pdf/05214.pdf

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION TO BE ESTABLISHED

A new Youth Mental Health Foundation to better assist young Australians who suffer from mental illness is to be established by the Australian Government.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne, said the foundation would provide a national, coordinated focus on youth mental health and related drug and alcohol problems in Australia.

The foundation will be funded under the $69 million 2005–2006 Promoting Better Mental Health Budget initiative.

“One in four young Australians suffer from mental illness in any one year and three-quarters of all mental health problems begin before the age of 25,” Mr Pyne said.

“When left untreated, mental health problems like depression and anxiety may lead to alcohol and substance abuse, and up to half of young people with these problems directly attribute them to untreated or poorly treated mental health concerns.”

The new foundation would provide a centre of excellence to promote evidence-based practice in youth mental health and related drug and alcohol problems and will foster community awareness of youth mental health issues and promote young people’s help-seeking behaviour.

It would also administer a local grants program to help coordinate services for young people with mental health problems and develop and disseminate evidence-based education and training resources for GPs and other service providers working with young people.

“The Youth Mental Health Foundation will improve access for young people with mental health and drug and alcohol problems to appropriate services and ensure better coordination between services,” Mr Pyne said.

The Department of Health and Ageing will call for expressions of interest from organisations or consortia to establish and operate the new foundation in the coming weeks.

This initiative reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to improving the mental health of young people.


Media contact: Adam Howard 0400 414 833

Outcome Evaluation of a Public Health Approach to Suicide Prevention in an American Indian Tribal
Nation Philip A May, Patricia Serna, Lance Hurt, Lemyra M DeBruyn.
American Journal of Public Health Washington:Jul 2005. Vol. 95, Iss. 7, p. 1238-1244 (7 pp.)

May et al evaluated the efficacy of 15 years of a public health-oriented suicidal-behavior prevention program among youths living on an American Indian reservation. Data from this community-based approach document a remarkable downward trend--measured by both magnitude and temporal trends in the specifically targeted age cohorts--in suicidal acts.

Suicide Postvention: Dr Frank Campbell.
A collaborative approach to suicide prevention. Lifeline has invited American expert Dr Frank Campbell to Australia to conduct a workshop titled "Sudden and traumatic loss – the aftermath of suicide, the benefits of an active postvention approach" to assist practitioners and those working in the area of suicide prevention. Dr Campbell is the Executive Director of the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center, the Crisis Center Foundation and is a past president of the American Association of Suicidology. His workshops will focus on a collaborative community approach for suicide bereavement, offering participants the opportunity to discuss strategies to advance active postvention services in Australia, and the necessary partnerships required to ensure its sustainability. For further information and registration go to http://www.lifeline.org.au/pages/frank_campbell.php

New Directory
There is a new web-based Directory on the DCD website that provides information about initiatives, projects and programs that strengthen communities and families to ultimately keep women and children safe. It was developed as part of the Promoting Strong Children, Strong Families, Strong Communities project.
Please check the Directory at www.promotingstrongcommunities.wa.gov.au or through the DCD website

The Directory is intended to provide information that will be useful to the community. So, please circulate this through your networks.

If you are aware of initiatives that could be listed, please email indigenous@community.wa.gov.au which is the address listed on the directory or complete the form attached and send it in to that address. Similarly if there are corrections or changes please advise that address. The better the coverage and quality of the information, the more useful it will be.

MENTAL HEALTH WEEK 2005
9th October – 15th October

“Everybody has it. MENTAL HEALTH. How do YOU treat it?”

As usual, WAAMH will coordinate an Events Calendar detailing what is happening around the state. It is important that you let us know what you are doing for your Mental Health Week event so it can be placed in the Calendar and circulated statewide. Event Registrations forms will be available on the website (www.waamh.org.au) or look out for it attached to one of these bulletins.

Something a little bit different this year, there will be an opportunity for you to have your logo placed on the Calendar of Events for 2005. The information on where and when to send you logo will be on the Event Registration form.

THE HEALTH REPORT:
Awareness of mental illness among young Australians Monday 11 July, 8.30am, Radio National This week on the Health Report: Increasing the knowledge of mental health issues by young people may help in getting the benefits of early treatment.

Researchers in Melbourne conducted a study to investigate young people's ability to recognise clinical depression and psychosis. They surveyed just over 1,200 young people. Almost half of them were able to identify depression correctly and only a quarter identified psychosis correctly.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/

THE HEALTH REPORT

Awareness of mental illness among young Australians
Monday 11 July, 8.30am, Radio National
Increasing the knowledge of mental health issues by young people may help in getting the benefits of early treatment.

Researchers in Melbourne conducted a study to investigate young people's ability to recognise clinical depression and psychosis. They surveyed just over 1,200 young people. Almost half of them were able to identify depression correctly and only a quarter identified psychosis correctly.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/

SECOND OPINION: Depression
Tuesday 12 July, 6.30pm, ABC TV
The week on Second Opinion, does kinesiology provide an answer for depression? And how can natural hormones help menopausal women? Judy is joined on the panel by Maxine Blackaby, Dr Madeleine Lovell and Dr Jennie Jackson.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/secondopinion/

School news
A new resource package of ideas has been released for secondary school teachers using the novel "Saving Francesca" by Melina Marchetta (Penguin, 2003) as a class text. The package assists teachers to explore some of the underlying themes relating to parental mental illness within this award-winning book using associated credible Australian resources. The focus of the package is to utilise the themes within "Saving Francesca" to increase student's understanding of mental illness and its effect on families; reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and increase students' 'help seeking' behaviour.

Developed by staff from the national COPMI (Children Of Parents with a Mental Illness) and MindMatters initiatives, with assistance from a wide range of reviewers in the mental health and education sectors, the package is available for download from the COPMI website http://www.copmi.net.au/ (see the Downloads section) and MindMatters website http://cms.curriculum.edu.au/mindmatters/resources/pdf/other_resources/savingfrancesca.pdf

The COPMI and MindMatters initiatives are funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

SIEC Altert #58, June 2005
Media Influences on Suicide
The influence of the media on suicidal behaviour is a topic that has long been discussed in the suicide prevention arena. Media can either help or hinder suicide prevention efforts. This 3-page edition of SIEC Alert addresses the role media plays, both negative and positive, and provides brief information to guide responsible media reporting. A list of resources, including links to full media reporting guidelines available online, are provided. read more...

Consulting with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities
"Why Didn't You Tell Us? Because You Didn't Ask"
A guide for South Australian Government Agencies on consulting with culturally and linguistically diverse communities which contains information useful to everyone consulting these communities.

A Plan for Action 2005-2007
Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing A Plan for Action, VicHealth's second mental health promotion plan, has been designed not only to guide VicHealth's work in mental health promotion, but also as a resource for those across a range of sectors who are seeking to maximise opportunities to promote mental health and
well-being in their programs, policies and practices. The plan presents a framework to guide practice which addresses key determinants of mental health and broad strategies for addressing them, along with settings for
action and population groups for whom mental health promotion is a particular priority. Up-to-date evidence on factors influencing mental health and well-being and the benefits of mental health promotion are
also included.

From AICAFMHA News: News In Brief Issue #5.06

The Mental Health of America
(adapted from Ivanhoe Newswire)

Four studies published in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry delve into mental health among Americans, and the results are surprising. The first study, from researchers at Harvard in Boston, found more than 26 percent of adults had symptoms in the previous 12 months that would give them a diagnosis of a mental disorder. Most were classified as serious or moderate. The study was conducted on more than 9,200 adults. A second study looked at the lifetime prevalence of mental illness in the United States. The same
researchers from Harvard found half of American adults had symptoms that would qualify them as having a mental disorder over the course of their lives. Most of the disorders began in childhood or adolescence....

The NCS-R results will yield much-needed information about the burden of disease, medical comorbidity, and global patterns of illness. This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005;62: 617-627; 593-602; 603-613; 629-640 and 590-592

LIFE (Living is for Everyone)

Launch of LIFE (Living is for Everyone) website On Wednesday May 11, the
Living is for Everyone (LIFE site) was successfully launched at
Parliament House in Canberra by the Hon Christopher Pyne, Parliamentary
Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing. The LIFE website has
been developed by Auseinet as part of its commitment to facilitating
networks for information exchange and learning under the Australian
Government National Suicide Prevention Strategy (NSPS). The site
includes access to online and print based resources, Australian
statistics, information about suicide prevention projects, resources
related to the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples, conference listings, links to media reports,
and related sites.
To visit the site go to: http://www.livingisforeveryone.com/

New York State Recommends Use of TeenScreen Mental Health Check-Ups to
Prevent Teen Suicide

NEW YORK, June 8 /PRNewswire/ --
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) recommends that local communities conduct voluntary teen mental health screenings, and specifically encourages use of the Columbia University TeenScreen Program, as part of the state's suicide prevention efforts. The recommendation is contained in the state's new suicide prevention plan, Saving Lives in New York: Suicide Prevention and Public Health. Each year New York loses over 1,300 lives to suicide.

The TeenScreen Program provides consultation, training, screening tools, software and technical assistance free of charge to schools and communities who want to implement their own voluntary mental health screening programs. In addition to OMH, TeenScreen has been endorsed by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and more than 30 national health, education and social service groups. Source: Columbia University

Media report
Triple J's HACK program is focusing on mental illness for the week
commencing 6th June 2005. It featured a number of young carers from NSW
and explores the issues relating to families. You can also listen to the
audio from the program. The interview can be downloaded from the website
at http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/s1386333.htm. It will be on
the front page for about a week, after which time you can get it from
the Archive file for June.

Identifying the student at risk
Adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is conducting a series of one-day workshops for school staff through the Australian Principals Centre (now part of the Australian Council for Educational Research). Schools are often in the front line in the provision of psychological 'first aid' to a generation of school students whose psychosocial health is said to be well below that of their parents at a similar age, and therefore the series of skills-based workshops is tailored to the needs of school staff who are in pastoral care positions.

(From: ACER e-news - May 05)

Medical disorders of suicides in Australia: analysis using a multiple-cause-of-death approach
Lado T. Ruzicka, Ching Y., Choi and Krys Sadkowsky

The impaired health of a person who has committed suicide is often suggested among the proximate causes of suicidal behaviour. The introduction in 1997 of multiple-cause-of-death coding by the Australian Bureau of Statistics provided an opportunity to examine health impairments recorded on the death certificates of suicides. Data for the quinquennium 1997–2001 revealed a high prevalence of mental and behavioural disorders, in particular among women and among young and adolescent suicides. Comparison of multiple causes of death attributed to those who died in accidents with those recorded as suicides revealed that of the chronic and terminal illnesses, HIV and cancer were probably the conditions likely to trigger suicidal action.

Social Science & Medicine Volume 61, Issue 2 , July 2005, Pages 333-341

Depression Gene May Weaken Mood-Regulating Circuit
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/shortcircuit.cfm

A brain scan study suggests that a suspect gene may increase susceptibility to anxiety and depression by weakening a circuit for processing negative emotion. People with the depression-linked gene variant showed less gray matter and weaker connections in the mood-regulating circuit. How well the circuit was connected accounted for nearly 30 percent of their anxious temperament, researchers at the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found. Dr. Daniel Weinberger and colleagues report on their brain imaging genetics study in the May 8, 2005 online edition of Nature Neuroscience.

RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL EVALUATES RISK OF ADOLESCENT SUICIDE SCREENING PROGRAMS

"Our findings can allay concerns about the potential harm of high
school-based suicide screening," state the authors of an article published
in the April 6, 2005, issue of JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical
Association. The authors note that while evidence for the clinical
validity and reliability of school-based screening procedures has recently
emerged, the potential harm of screening for suicide remains unstudied.
The article examines whether asking an adolescent about suicidal ideation
and behavior during a screening program creates immediate or persistent
distress or increases suicidal ideation among high school students
generally or among high-risk students with depression symptoms, substance
use problems, or previous suicide attempts, specifically.

Students from six high schools in the state of New York participating in a
school-based suicide-screening program were assessed between fall 2002 and
spring 2004. Classes within each of the six high schools were randomized
to either an experimental group (N=1,172 students) or a control group
(N=1,170 students). The experimental group received a first screening
survey with a set of questions assessing suicidal ideation and behavior;
the control group received the same first survey but without suicide
questions. Students' transient distress was measured at the beginning and
end of the first survey and again at the beginning of a second survey
administered 2 days after the first. Both groups received the same second
survey, which included suicide questions.

The authors found that
* Experimental and control groups did not differ significantly in their
distress levels immediately after the first survey or 2 days later.
* The experimental group reported no more suicidal ideation after the
survey than the control group.
* Students with depression symptoms reported more distress and suicidal
ideation than other students; however, being exposed to suicide questions
in the first survey did not exacerbate distress or suicidal ideation among
students with depression. On the contrary, among students with depression,
the experimental group had slightly lower distress scores than the control
group.
* Among previous suicide attempters, the experimental group had less
suicidal ideation than the control group.
The authors conclude that "universal screening for mental health problems
and suicide risk should continue to be at the forefront of the national
agenda for youth suicide prevention."


Full reference
Gould MS, Marrocco FA, Kleinman M, et al. 2005. Evaluating iatrogenic risk
of youth suicide screening programs: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA,
The Journal of the American Medical Association 293(13):1635-1643.