Recommendation 26

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission's Final Report calls for a coordinated focus on suicide prevention and response.

It recommends the establishment of a new Suicide Prevention and Response Office. The office will be led by a State Suicide Prevention and Response Adviser.

The office will ensure that people with lived experience of suicidal behaviour can contribute to the development and delivery of suicide prevention and response initiatives. This will include participation of family members, carers, and people with lived experience of bereavement.

The Royal Commission also called for a new suicide prevention and response strategy. This will be co-produced with people with lived experience of suicide. The strategy will ensure that all levels of government contribute to suicide prevention efforts.

What are the opportunities?

The Royal Commission found:

• people with lived experience should contribute to program and policy development
• responsibility for suicide prevention and response must sit at the most senior levels of government
• coordination between programs and services at the Commonwealth and state levels is critical
• there needs to be a system wide approach to reducing suicides. This will require both a whole-of-government and community approach.
• suicide prevention must be everyone’s business.

The Royal Commission called out the need to raise the profile of suicide prevention and response. This will involve working across all Victorian government departments and agencies. It will also involve working with the Commonwealth Government and other sectors.

The Royal Commission described a need for lived experience-led programs and policies. The knowledge and expertise of people with lived experience will be vital to creating high-quality services.

What are we doing?

We are establishing a Suicide Prevention and Response Victorian Secretaries Board Subcommittee. Membership of the Subcommittee will include all Victorian Government departments, the Coroner’s Court, WorkSafe and Victoria Police. The Subcommittee will ensure accountability for suicide prevention and response outcomes.

We will soon establish the Suicide Prevention and Response Office. The office will ensure coordinated suicide prevention and response efforts across the state.

We will co-produce a new suicide prevention and response strategy for Victoria. We will work with people with lived experience and our government partners to develop the strategy.