A review of 156 local projects funded under Australia’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy: Overview and lessons learned

Abstract This paper presents an overview of 156 local suicide prevention projects funded under Australia’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy (NSPS), and describes lessons elicited from a content analysis of the projects’ progress and final reports. The purpose of the analysis was to maximise gains in Australian suicide prevention activities by highlighting promising processes and impacts and minimise repetition of less successful elements. The projects targeted 11 groups (with the most common being young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people in rural/remote areas); occurred in various settings (with community-based projects being particularly popular); and employed different approaches (with training and support for health/community professionals or carers being favoured, along with public health interventions aimed at enhancing well-being and building resilience). Certain processes augured well for project success, including: understanding contextual factors; investigating participants’ needs; drawing on sound evidence; developing multi-faceted strategies; garnering stakeholder support; and employing capable staff. The projects achieved improvements in knowledge about risk and protective factors for suicide, social connectedness and mental health literacy, and reductions in depressive symptomatology. Projects’ sustainability was constrained by their short-term funding. These findings are discussed in the context of the NSPS entering a new funding phase.