Brian McErlean recognised for leadership in suicide prevention
Community Engagement
Tuesday 28th July 2015
Hobart, Australia:Brian McErlean was tonight recognised with a LiFE Award for excellence in suicide prevention at the 2015 National Suicide Prevention Conference.
“Brian McErlean became a sole motivator to establish Suicide Prevention awareness, policies and procedures that provided a more supportive work environment for current vets.”
Clive Elliott, Agency Coordinator
One Life Suicide Prevention Strategy 2010 – 2014
Brian Mc Erlean MVB MRCVS (Veterinary Surgeon) has devoted the past 5 years to helping prevent suicide in veterinarians. He draws on his lived experience of losing colleagues and classmates to drive and inform his suicide prevention activities.
“[Because of Brian’s work] many veterinarians now are able to recognize the signs of suboptimal mental health in themselves or colleagues so that action can be initiated before these problems develop into critical situations”
Dr Michael Paton, Coordinator
AVA Graduate Support Scheme
Brian has held different positions relating to educating veterinarians and project development to combat suicide in the industry. His major accomplishments include:
- Developing a veterinarian specific suicide prevention program under the Western Australian OneLife Project for the Australian Veterinary Association.
- Representing OneLife as a Suicide Prevention Ambassador.
- Intervening veterinarians who are distressed in practice around the state of WA.
- Training veterinarians and students through the Veterinary School, Murdoch University as “Gatekeeprs” to predict and intervene with suicidal crises.
- Seeing the training program be adapted for use in other states around Australia.
- Delivering multiple conference Plenary Adresses internationally.
- Assisting running a Wellness Centre at the Philippine Annual Veterinary Conference.
“[Brian] promotes a balanced lifestyle to include sport and the arts. Suicide in veterinarians in WA has not occurred since we started the program.”
Dr Helen Jones, Nominator
The annual LiFE Awards recognise excellence in suicide prevention across six different categories including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Workplace, Media, Community Engagement, Community Development and Research. This year a LiFEtime Achievement Award is also being awarded for a significant contribution to suicide prevention.
They were presented as part of the 2015 National Suicide Prevention Conference in Hobart. Australia’s leading suicide prevention sector event provides a platform for more than 350 delegates to share in the latest research, policy and practice with a focus on delivering better outcomes for vulnerable communities.
2015 LiFE Award Recipients:
- Workplace: NSW Police Force Mental Health Intervention Team
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander: Julie Turner
- Community Development (Organisation): Living Proud WA
- Community Development (Individual): Lee-Ann Foord
- Community Engagement: Brian McErlean
- Media: ABC Mental As
- Research: NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention (CRESP)
- LiFEtime Achievement Award: Professor Diego de Leo
ENDS
Media Contact: Kim Borrowdale, Suicide Prevention Australia
0409 149099 / 02 9262 1130 /
About Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA): SPA provides national leadership for the suicide prevention sector in Australia. SPA works collaboratively to develop a community that knows how to ask for help and how to give help. As the lead agency of the National Coalition for Suicide Prevention, we build and facilitate partnerships to reduce the stigma around mental illness and suicide, and to assist the healing for people with lived experience of suicide attempts and suicide.
About the Annual Suicide Prevention Conference:The Annual National Suicide Prevention Conference is the premier, multidisciplinary, educational event in the suicide prevention sector. The Conference provides a platform for the exchange of ideas to help achieve our agenda of halving suicides in Australia over the next ten years. This year the focus will be on the intersection of suicide prevention research, policy, practice and lived experience. /conferences
Talking about suicide in the media: A reminder of the Mindframe Media guidelines - - and for tips on how to talk safely and constructively about suicide.
Crisis support information
- Lifeline 13 11 14
- Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
- Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
- MensLine 1300 78 99 78