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SANE in action
A personal message
from Jack Heath, CEO of SANE Australia
Im writing to make a personal appeal for you to help SANE
Australias work, especially with those vulnerable to suicide . . .
The latest statistics show lives lost to suicide in Australia increased to more than 2,500
in 2012. This upwards trend is a major concern. People affected by mental illness are at
much higher risk of suicide than virtually any other group. This is why SANE Australias
work is so important.
At SANE, we are working hard to reduce suicide
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Working with people who have attempted suicide to understand better what would
deter others from taking their own lives
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Training mental health workers how to better help someone who is suicidal
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Supporting people who have been bereaved by suicide
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Reducing stigma in the media and the general public so that people arent afraid to
get the help they need early on, before its too late
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Training managers in the workplace to help people with emerging mental
health issues
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Providing direct support to the 10,000 carers and individuals affected by mental
illness who contact us every year
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Lobbying government to adopt a national goal to halve the suicide rate in ten years
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Teaming up with other mental health organisations to work together through the
National Suicide Prevention Coalition.
These are uncertain, challenging times, and SANE Australias work relies on the
generosity of people like you more than ever to help those in need.
Please give whatever you can using the donation slip with
this issue of SANE News so that together we can reduce
suicide and help all Australians affected by mental illness lead
a better life.

When someone affected by mental illness


dies by suicide, it has an impact on those who
cared for them too.
SANE Australias Mental Illness and
Bereavement Project improves how mental
health services support family and friends of
people with mental illness who have died by
suicide or who are missing.
Sarah Coker, manager of the project, explains
the need, what SANE is doing about it, and
how you can get involved . . .
Whats the need for our project?
It is a sobering fact that one of the main causes of premature
death amongst people with a mental illness is suicide.
Although not everyone who has a mental illness experiences
suicidal thoughts or behaviours, mental illness and suicide are
strongly linked. In addition, many of the 35,000 people who go
missing in Australia each year live with mental illness.
Loss caused by suicide and missing persons has a profound
ripple effect on families and friends. When mental illness is
involved, the bereaved often contend with a range of complex
emotions.
What does the project do?
Research indicates that people bereaved by suicide are at much
higher risk of a range of heath problems, and even of suicide
themselves. It is therefore vital that mental health and other
community services offer appropriate supports to the bereaved.
Responding to this need, SANE has been researching and
providing support to the mental health sector on this issue since
2007. The project is now funded by the Australian Government,
Department of Health, as part of the National Suicide Prevention
Strategy.
An important issue is that most mental health services do
not have a policy on how to support the family and friends of
clients who die by suicide. As a result, the response tends to be
ad hoc, the bereaved often feel that the impact on them is not
acknowledged, and support is inadequate.
To address this issue, SANE has developed a model bereavement
policy for mental health services.
In promoting the policy as part of education and training for
mental health services, SANE runs a half-day workshop to
help their staff learn about the issue of suicide bereavement,
implement policy change, and increase knowledge of support
agencies and resources for those bereaved by suicide.
The workshop delivered by myself, Sarah Coker, and Garrett
ODowd, Bereavement Counselling Manager at Mercy Western
Grief Services also covers issues such as grief and mental
illness and new models of grief.
Helping family and friends after someone with mental illness has died by suicide
The ripple effect
Helping family and friends after someone with mental illness has died by suicide
The ripple effect
Whats been achieved?
Over 700 mental health workers from around Australia have
been trained in the Mental Illness and Bereavement Workshops
since 2008, enabling them to be far more knowledgeable,
skilled, and condent in supporting bereaved family and friends
(many of whom are also living with a mental illness).
Feedback from workshops has been overwhelmingly
enthusiastic, with almost 90% of participants reporting that
they now felt more condent in their services ability to support
bereaved family and friends of clients. An external evaluation by
consultants, KPMG, has been similarly positive about the impact
of the project.
Workshops continue to be delivered to mental health workers
around Australia, to benet anyone in a mental health service
who may work with people with mental illness, their families
and friends, or who may be at risk of suicide.
The workshop is also particularly useful for managers and those
responsible for policy who may be looking for ways to improve
their services response to suicide.
We are proud that 700 mental health workers are now better
trained to help the bereaved following a suicide, but there is still
much to be done to reduce the ripple effect to minimise the
risk to others when someone with someone with mental dies by
suicide. It is this which inspires us to continue our work.
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www.sane.org/projects/suicide-prevention

How to get involved
Its easy to get involved in this work to reduce
the wider impact of suicide, says Sarah Coker,
Manager of the Mental Illness and Bereavement
Project.
If you work in the mental health area, and want
to know more about organising a workshop
for your service, call us on (03) 9682 5933 or
contact myself or our Project Ofcer, Samara
Gray, by email.
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sarah.coker@sane.org
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samara.gray@sane.org
The Hocking Fellowship
The inaugural Hocking Fellowship for 2014 has been
awarded to Western Australias Sonia Neale, who will
receive a grant to promote improved understanding
of, and services for, people affected by borderline
personality disorder (BPD).
Mrs Neale, a Mental Health Peer Support Worker in Perth with personal experience of BPD,
will travel to Europe and the United States to study world-leading treatments for the condition,
including dialectical behaviour therapy, mindfulness, and peer support programs.
It is an honour to be chosen for SANEs Hocking Fellowship.
I feel privileged to receive the award which will enable me to
embark on several creative initiatives supporting people with
BPD, said Mrs Neale.
Mrs Neale will visit leading mental health experts at the University of Washington, the University of
Massachusetts, the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, and the Peer-to-
Peer and Connection services run by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).
My work will focus on establishing new services to support people, destigmatising BPD, as well
as debunking age-old myths and stereotypes of what people living with BPD look and behave like,
Mrs Neale explained.
Australia has some great general and illness-specic mental health services that help many people
achieve recovery, but there appears to be a scarcity of support and resources dedicated to people
suffering from BPD who make up around 2-6% of the population.
As well as investigating best-practice initiatives, Mrs Neale will work with SANE Australia to improve
understanding and support for those affected by BPD through development of information resources
and services in this area, including involvement in SANEs new online peer-support forums being
launched later this year.
With over 70 applications for this inaugural Fellowship, the number received, as well as their quality,
was very high. The Board of SANE Australia was unanimous, however, in selecting Mrs Neale and her
project on this much misunderstood and neglected area.
I am passionate in promoting the message that with the right treatment, the right therapeutic
support, empathy and understanding, recovery from this disorder is possible, Mrs Neale said.
The Hocking Fellowship
The aim of the Hocking Fellowship is to promote better mental health of Australians through
advancing the public understanding of mental illness, of how treatment and support can
be improved and how all those affected, including family and friends, can be empowered
to help themselves. The Fellowship celebrates the contribution of Barbara Hocking OAM
(Executive Director of SANE Australia 1995-2012) in her work towards a better life for all people
affected by mental illness.

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