MEDIA RELEASE
SUICIDE PREVENTIONS EXPERTS CONVERGE ON CAIRNS
June 12, 2012 –More than 150 of the nation’s top suicide and self-harm prevention experts will converge on Cairns tomorrow (June 13) for the bi-annual Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Conference.
Organised by the Dr Edward Koch Foundation, the conference will include leading speakers from Australia on the subject of suicide and self harm. The governor of Queensland, her Excellency Ms Penelope Wensley, AC, QLD who is a patron of the Dr Edward Koch Foundation will officially open the conference at 9am.
Foundation chief executive Dulcie Bird said the conference would highlight new concepts and methods in prevention and postvention work and give delegates the opportunity to learn from experts in their field. “This is the best line-up of key note speakers we have ever put together for one of our conferences,” Ms Bird said.
Kicking off the conference will be Professor Diego De Leo, director of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, QLD, who is well known in the region for his work on the prominent inquest into the deaths of the Vicki Arnold and Julie-Anne Leahy. He will discuss risk factors for suicide.
Other topics to be discussed include youth suicide and prevention and whether “we are failing our young” as well as the needs analysis of suicide-bereaved relatives and families.
James Cook University will also outline its Staying Alive training package, which has been designed specifically for the Cairns community to respond to suicide risk.
Speaking on suicide prevention in disaster recovery areas is general Peter Cosgrove, while Stephanie Wilks from the Salvation Army will speak on suicide prevention and bereavement support and the importance of recognising lived experience in postvention.
“This is a great opportunity for local people to hear from experts in the field on suicide prevention,” Ms Bird added.“Most health research is concentrated in the major Australian population centres despite significant challenges existing in remote areas of north Queensland, especially in Indigenous health.”
She said the conference was about helping communities grow stronger in their understanding of
suicide. “Those in attendance can learn from these experts who are in the national and international pubic health scientific community and hopefully share this knowledge.”
Ms Bird said on average, five people suicide each day in Australia and 50 to 70% of people will thinkabout suicide at some time in their lives.
For more information on the conference contact Dulcie Bird on 0409 765 305.
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For interviews contact Tanya Snelling (nee Bird)
Strategic PR incorporating Libra Communications
0417 202 663
Key note speakers include:
Associate Professor Jane Burns, CEO at Young and Well, Melbourne.
Professor Graham Martin, Professor, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, The University of Queensland Clinical Director, RCH & Brisbane North CYMHS Centre for Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience Research (Suicide Prevention Studies).
Senator Rachel Siewert, Chair of the Community Affairs Committee, Commonwealth Government.
Ms Jaelea Skehan, Program Manager, Hunter Institute of Mental Health and a Conjoint Teaching Fellow, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle.
Mr Jorgen Gullestrup, CEO, MATES in Construction
Mr John Brady, Operations Manager, MATES in Construction.
Assoc. Prof. Myfanwy Maple, Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Course Coordinator of the Social Work program, University of New England.
Ms Sandra Palmer, Clinical Manager CPRS, Clinical Advisory Services Aotearoa Ltd, Auckland, NZ.
Cameron Howlett, Member, Cairns YEA Advisory Group.
Professor Diego De Leo, Director, Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention.
Andrew Matthews, Author and Illustrator.
Dr Michael Dudley, Co-Chair, Suicide Prevention Australia and Senior Staff Specialist in Psychiatry, Prince of Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospitals.
Professor Helen Christensen, Executive Director, Black Dog Institute.
Mr Thomas Brideson, State-wide Coordinator, NSW Aboriginal Mental Health Workforce Program, Western NSW Local Health Network Social and Emotional Wellbeing Centre, Bloomfield Hospital, Orange.
Adjunct Professor Ernest Hunter, Cape York Area Psychiatrist, Qld Health
General Peter Cosgrove.