Torres & Cape SPCAP

What is the Torres & Cape 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 ultimate vision of the Torres & Cape SPCAP is that fewer people experience significant emotional distress, attempt suicide and die by suicide in the Torres and Cape region.

Guided by Black Dog Insitute LifeSpan Framework for Suicide Prevention, it is a systems approach that also invites local community action.

Effective suicide prevention is essentially a powerful movement for change. 

“Congratulations to Torres and Cape Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan for adopting such a well-balanced community-focused plan that includes recommendations from those of us who have had this life experience. Suicide prevention is the responsibility of individuals, families, workforces, health services, schools, communities, and the government. Together we can reduce the rates of suicide.”
— Jackie Perry, Lived Experience Participant

Navigating the Torres & Cape Region

Thinking about suicide prevention across the Torres and Cape Districts is not a small task. It's a vast geographical area with many remote, rural and island communities. Navigating this area requires a clear lens on past and present history, systems of oppression and an understanding of the nuances of discrete communities.

You can see the area covered by the SPCAP here.

Over a twelve-month period in 2021 - 2022, the Torres and Cape SPCAP team conducted interviews and workshops across the region and identified key priorities for action.

Key LifeSpan Framework Strategies for Torres & Cape

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

    Culturally appropriate suicide prevention training for frontline healthcare workers

    Commission culturally and geographically relevant aftercare services with an emphasis on the development of localised services

    Establish postvention referral pathways and discharge protocols

  • 2. Using evidence-based treatment for suicidal ideation

    Develop locally specific mental health and suicide prevention interagency forums and conferencing

    Scope and establish alternatives to emergency departments including distribution of new and emerging and best practice suicide prevention approaches

    Make available localised, de-itentfied suicide prevention data

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

    Provide culturally appropriate suicide prevention-specific training for primary care health professionals (including GPs)

    Scope the development of a geographically and culturally appropriate primary care-oriented screening tool and referral pathway

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

    Suicide prevention training, supervision and debriefing for first responders

    Development of suicide prevention protocols (responding to attempts and postvention)

    Develop First Nations first responder workforce and innovative first responder service models

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

    Whole-of-school approaches to suicide prevention (including education, resources and referral pathways)

    Programs for children and young people not engaged in the education or vocational training system

    Sports and out-of-school activities to be developed and implemented

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

    Suicide prevention training for community members

    Build local networks of trained community members

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

    Develop culturally and geographically relevant communication campaigns

    Establish suicide prevention and support networks for community members

    Train lived experience representatives to participate in project governance activities

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

    Collaborate with traditional media outlets to deliver safe and purposeful media reporting

    Develop strategies with regional stakeholders and community groups regarding safe and purposeful media content

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

    Develop a region wide culturally and geographically appropriate approach to safety planning

    Scope the feasibility and utility of conducting a Suicide Audit Report

How was the plan developed?

  • The development began in August 2021.

  • Comprehensive research was conducted to understand the historical and social determinants of suicide in the Torres Strait Islands and Cape York Peninsula regions.

  • The unique differences between the communities were taken into account while planning.

  • The Torres and Cape SPCAP Project Steering Group was established in September 2021.

  • The project's geographical footprint was redefined based on feedback from the PSG in October and January 2022 to include more communities.

  • Consultations were conducted with sector professionals and workers in different regions from November 2021 to June 2022.

  • A call for support was published in a newspaper to get input from those with lived experience (LE) of suicide, and consultations were conducted with LE participants.

  • A regional cross-cultural postvention initiative and a local support group for those bereaved by suicide were developed through the consultation process.

  • Project steering group meetings were held to discuss the biggest issues, solutions, and future vision for suicide prevention activities across the Torres and Cape.

Working closely with communities across the Torres and Cape districts, the Strategy and Actions Register provide a wealth of guidance for consideration and action.

The Whole-of-Region Strategy sets out the background, rationale, strategic drivers and high-level priority actions aligned with Black Dog Institute’s LifeSpan framework. This document is designed to inform and guide implementation activities by providing a list of priority actions that should be prioritised for implementation by the whole-of-region steering committee or local implementation teams.