Suicide prevention and response strategy

Suicide prevention and response strategy 2024-34

All Victorians working together to reduce suicide.

Each year we lose too many lives to suicide. It affects people from all ages and backgrounds, but the numbers don’t show the full picture. They don’t include those struggling with suicidal thoughts, those who have survived attempts or the lasting impact on families and friends, including those bereaved by suicide.

The Victorian suicide prevention and response strategy 2024-2034 is a 10-year strategy that builds a whole-of-government and community-wide approach to suicide prevention and response. It responds to Recommendation 26 from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The strategy has been developed in partnership with people with lived and living experience of suicide. This includes people who have survived a suicide attempt, live with suicidal thoughts, care for or support someone who is suicidal, or have lost someone to suicide. It has also been shaped by extensive consultation with clinicians, people who work with people disproportionately impacted by suicide and other experts in the field.

Guided by eight principles, the strategy aims to reduce the rate of suicide, support those impacted and stop the stigma that surrounds it. It will do this by working across government, service providers and the community to deliver objectives under six priority areas and achieve our vision of: All Victorians working together to reduce suicide.

We need action across a range of areas, such as education, emergency services, housing, employment, gambling, justice, and health to drive down suicide rates.

Implementation plans and the accountability framework

To support successful delivery and implementation, an accountability framework and rolling implementation plans accompany the strategy.

The accountability framework aims to support, track, promote and assess the progress of the strategy. It sets out the responsibilities of government and the community, as well as the ways we will ensure the government and our partners deliver on our joint commitment.

Each implementation plan will outline the specific initiatives (programs, services and policies) that will be delivered over a specific time period. Each initiative will align with the strategy’s priority areas and objectives and will have a lead government department, agency or community partner.

The strategy will be delivered across three horizons, with each horizon corresponding to a different stage of implementation:

1. set strong foundations for a whole-of-government and community-wide approach and deliver immediate priorities;
2. gather pace for system-based change; and
3. mature the approach and set the stage for future work.

The first implementation plan has been extended by 12 months. This extension will provide time to strengthen the important foundational work that is already underway to deliver on the strategy’s first horizon. This includes increasing awareness and reducing stigma associated with suicide, strengthening supports to prevent and response to suicide, and building whole-of-government partnerships and capabilities.

From there, the second implementation plan will seek to demonstrate progress towards the strategy’s second horizon.

Each year of the strategy’s 10-year duration, we will release an annual report on the Victorian Government’s progress delivering initiatives outlined in implementation plans. Read the first annual report at Suicide prevention strategy annual reports.

We thank people with lived and living experience, clinicians, peer workers, frontline staff, researchers, community organisations and all implementation partners for their continued leadership and commitment to this work

Help seeking

If you or a loved one need support, please see supports via the Better Health Channel.