Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP

What is the Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP?

A Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan (SPCAP) is a community-wide response to preventing and reducing the impact of suicide through local action across a range of areas.

The Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP offers a coordinated approach to suicide prevention activities across the region.

The ultimate vision of the Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP is that fewer people experience significant emotional distress, attempt suicide and die by suicide in the region.

Guided by Black Dog Institute’s LifeSpan Framework, it takes a systems approach that also invites local community action, where effective suicide prevention is a collective movement for change. 

“I’m humbled by the engagement and vulnerability the communities have shown in openly sharing their experiences around and vision for preventing suicide. ‘It’s an exciting moment to implement these action areas and a time for everyone to come together... Preventing suicide is something that everyone has a role in doing.”
— Tynan Narywonczyk, Lived experience representative on Community Advisory Group (CAG)

About the Cairns & Hinterland region

The Cairns & Hinterland region refers to the geographic area covered by the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service.

The region covers an area of 142,900 square kilometres — ranging from the Cassowary Coast in the south through Cairns and Yarrabah to Douglas Shire in the north, and out through Mareeba and the Tablelands to Croydon in the west.

Key priorities of the Cairns & Hinterland Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan (SPCAP)

  • 1. Improving emergency and follow up care for suicidal crisis

    Deliver suicide prevention training for ED staff

    Scale up alternatives to Emergency Department, including peer-led support

    Increase the effectiveness and reach of aftercare and postvention services

    Design a crisis response model for rural and remote communities

  • 2. Using evidence-based treatment for suicidal ideation

    Deliver integrated mental health services in the community using a stepped care approach

    Enhance community-based suicide prevention programs that address the factors that drive emotional distress

    Enhance the design and delivery of First Nations-specific suicide prevention programs

  • 3. Equipping primary care to identify and support people in distress

    Provide training and resources for GPs to assist their patients to connect to support

    Provide cultural training for GPs specifically in relation to priority populations of First Nations and LGBTIQAP+ communities

    Support suicide prevention programs in primary care for First Nations populations

  • 4. Improving competence and confidence of frontline workers to deal with suicidal crisis

    Partner with first responder organisations to scope and deliver suicide prevention-specific training

    Continue with and expand the reach of mental health co-responder models

    Partner with first responders to establish a lived experience advisory mechanism

  • 5. Promoting help seeking mental health and resilience ins schools

    Deliver comprehensive suicide prevention programs for students and their caregivers

    Provide suicide prevention training for school staff

    Deliver whole-of-school wellbeing initiatives

  • 6. Training the community to recognise and respond to suicidality

    Deliver consistent suicide prevention training across the region

    Develop local suicide prevention networks

    Deliver suicide prevention training in high-risk industries and workplaces

  • 7. Engaging the community and providing opportunities to be part of the change

    Continue to engage local communities to understand emerging needs and inform future activities

    Build local suicide prevention networks of community champions, people with lived experience and relevant organisations

    Design and implement a community-based ‘safe spaces’ network

  • 8. Encouraging safe and purposeful media reporting around the topic of suicide

    Develop local media partnerships

    Engage and partner with prominent social media groups

    Share information and resources on best practice communication regarding suicide

  • 9. Improving safety and reducing access to means of suicide

    Continue to monitor local suicide data

    Implement a region-wide ‘safety planning’ initiative to help contribute to means restriction

How the Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP was developed:

Commencing in 2019-2020, Beacon Strategies worked alongside Black Dog Institute, Roses in the Ocean, and a Community Advisory Group made up of 27 individuals who represented a variety of key local perspectives. Key milestones included:

  • Establishing the Community Advisory Group (CAG) to guide and inform the SPCAP development

  • Consultation with sector professionals, health services, First Nations communities and people with lived experience in communities in Cairns, Cairns South, Tablelands, Innisfail, Mareeba, Ravenshoe and Mossman.

  • Developing a Suicide Data Analysis with the support of the Black Dog Institute to provide visibility of local suicide data trends

  • Over 150 responses from community members received through an online survey

  • The Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP report was launched in July 2021

  • The SPCAP Brand was designed in partnership with a group of local young people

  • Local implementation teams were formed across the region to coordinate the actions and support the ongoing community-led implementation of the SPCAP priorities.

For more information:

You can read more about how the SPCAP was developed and is being implemented in the Cairns & Hinterland SPCAP Strategy. This report outlines the background and rationale for the SPCAP; the vision, outcomes and priority actions aligned to Black Dog Institute’s LifeSpan framework, and an overview of the implementation and governance approach.

The report is designed to guide implementation activities by local organisations and communities by providing a list of priority actions that reflect the needs and expectations of people in the region.