A community-led suicide prevention initiative for young people in regional and rural Australia: the Live4Life model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Young people living in regional and rural areas of Australia are at an increased risk of suicide and have unique barriers and facilitators to seeking mental health support. As such, specific mental health and suicide prevention programmes that are tailored to young people within their communities are required. Despite this, peer-reviewed literature on such interventions is scant. In this commentary, we outline an existing rural place-based programme; Live4Life, created in 2009 in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria, and now running in nine Australian regional communities. We demonstrate that Live4Life shows promise in building the capacity of whole communities to support young people to recognise and seek help for mental health concerns. As such, we argue the need for further evaluation comparing Live4Life communities with matched control communities to assess the long-term impact of the programme and to support the upscaling of Live4Life across Australian regional and rural communities. Key Points What is already known about this topic: Young people face the highest burden of mental ill-health in Australia, with adolescent mental health challenges having long-lasting impacts on functioning and quality of life. Regional and rural Australians are particularly at risk, experiencing increased suicide rates and additional barriers to accessing mental health services. Place-based approaches to suicide prevention, which engage local communities have been identified as a need for regional and rural communities. What this topic adds: We outline the community-led programme Live4Life, which aims to increase community knowledge of youth mental health and encourage help-seeking behaviour in young people. We discuss the existing evidence demonstrating the potential impact of the Live4Life model on the communities in which it is implemented. We offer suggestions for future research evaluating the efficacy of the programme by comparing communities with Live4Life implemented to matched control communities.