Pre-Congress Workshops
Tuesday 19th September 9:00 AM – 15:00 PM
The following pre-congress workshops will be available for delegates to attend and are included in the conference fee. If you wish to participate please indicate your preference when registering; places are limited and will be given in order of registration.
IASP Partnerships for Life Workshop.
Facilitated by Professor Steve Platt and Wendy Orchard.
The Partnerships for Life global initiative to prevent suicide (PfL), launched (as the Regional Suicide Prevention Networks Programme) in December 2020, is a flagship five-year (2021-2025) initiative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).
The programme aims to establish an international collaboration of experts supporting the development of a comprehensive, strategic approach to suicide prevention, with a view to increasing in the number of nations worldwide committed to the planning, implementation and evaluation of a national suicide prevention strategy.
Six networks, bringing together countries in different regions of the world, have been established under the leadership of coordinators with international reputations in the field.
Global and regional strategies have been developed and work plans have been prepared. Good progress has been made in respect of key actions, including: identification of key country contacts and establishment of effective working relationships between these contacts and the regional coordinator; development of a situation analysis in each country; supporting national teams and collaborative activity under the leadership of the key contact in each country; and delivery of workshops to support the implementation of the programme and encourage peer learning and facilitate mentorship between countries at different stages of strategy development.
Participants at the workshop will be informed about achievements and challenges during the first 2.5 years of the PfL programme, and will be offered the opportunity to contribute to, and become involved in, future developments. The workshop will comprise a mix of plenary and breakout sessions which will allow attendees to explore all aspects of the PfL programme. Further details will be provided in due course.
IASP Lived Experience Special Interest Group: Improving integration and partnership with people with lived experience of suicide.
Facilitated by Bronwen Edwards.
This is a hands-on, interactive workshop that explores the guiding principles and actions required to develop a foundational resource of trained and supported people with lived experience of suicide and how to better integrate lived experience knowledge and expertise into all aspects of suicide prevention. These principles are relevant across communities, organisations and suicide prevention strategies.
This workshop will provide an overview of the authorising environment needed for lived experience-informed and inclusive systems change, as well as the evidence base for partnering with people with lived experience to achieve effective and sustainable change. It will also explore the core values and principles that ground best practice lived experience partnership and inclusion and seek to spotlight examples of what good practice or good potential practice looks like around the globe.
Participants will engage in individual and group activities to map the existing strengths and opportunities in their organisations, communities or countries to develop and strengthen lived experience partnership and inclusion.
IASP Early Career Group Workshop.
Facilitated by Professor Jo Robinson and Dr Nuša Zadravec Šedivy.
The aim of this workshop is to bring together both students and early career researchers who are working across the globe in the area of suicide prevention to share their work, learn from each other and enjoy some informal networking.
The session will be hosted by Professor Jo Robinson from Orygen in Melbourne and VP of IASP and Dr Nuša Zadravec Šedivy from the University of Primorska. The session will include a series of short Lightning presentations by early career researchers, a conversation with 2 journal editors (Rory O’Connor and Jane Pirkis) and a panel discussion including topics such as supervision and mentoring, academic careers and ECR wellbeing.
The session is free to all conference delegates who are either students or who have completed their PhDs within the past 5 years, so if this is you then please come and join us. Click here to submit an EOI to be one of our Lightning Presenters.
Morning tea and a light lunch will be provided.
Places are strictly limited so please register early to ensure you don’t miss out.
IASP Suicide and the Workplace Special Interest Group Workshop: Researched-Based Rationale for Workplace Suicide-Prevention and Programmatic Outcomes.
Facilitated by Dr Sally Spencer-Thomas and Sarah Gaer, MA.
When it comes to suicide prevention, the workplace is a conduit, a convener, and a contributor. In other words, the workplace is an important place to offer suicide prevention awareness, skill development and mental health benefits to workers and their families. It’s also a place where peer support often helps people cope. And when working well, it’s a buffer to suicide as it offers experiences of meaning and connection.
But few are describing how the workplace is a contributor to suicide risk and how job-related psychosocial hazards contribute to increased risk of suicide.
In this workshop, facilitators will make the case that the workplace is an underleveraged system in suicide prevention and that work-related suicide needs to be defined and measured.
Participants will learn how to cultivate a nine-practice plan for suicide prevention encompassing upstream, midstream and downstream approaches based on the U.S. National Guidelines for Workplace Suicide Prevention.
Strategies to enroll people with lived experience in these efforts are essential. Stories of lived experience leadership and impact will be shared throughout.
Lessons learned will also be shared from the New York State pilot “H.O.P.E. Certification” program, a culture change initiative that evaluated the impact of implementing the practices over nine months.
Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings: MENTUPP.
Facilitated by Professor Ella Arensman and the MENTUPP Consortium.
Depression and anxiety are the most prevalent mental health difficulties in the workplace in the EU, causing immense suffering and costing the global economy €1 trillion in lost productivity annually. People working within certain sectors, in particular construction, health and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors are at an increased risk of mental health difficulties and suicidal behaviour, with those working in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) being particularly vulnerable. Most SMEs have limited capacity to address mental health promotion and provide mental health interventions to staff. As SMEs comprise more than 90% of all EU businesses, there is a huge potential to influence population health.
MENTUPP, Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings, is a 4-year Horizon 2020 EU-funded project (January 2020) that is currently within the final year. MENTUPP is a multi-level intervention aimed at promoting mental wellbeing in the workplace, addressing clinical (depression and anxiety disorders) and non-clinical mental health issues (stress, burnout, wellbeing, depressive symptoms) and reducing associated stigma in SMEs. The primary aim of the MENTUPP programme is to improve workplace mental health and a secondary aim is to reduce depression and suicidal behaviour in employees and managers in SMEs. The MENTUPP intervention is delivered through an online platform, the MENTUPP Hub, that presents interactive psychoeducational materials, toolkits, and links to additional resources for employees and managers. The MENTUPP intervention has been pilot tested, optimised, and a cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (cRCT) is currently ongoing in the three occupational sectors in eight European countries and Australia.
This workshop will provide an overview of the MENTUPP Project, and participants will be informed of lessons learned throughout the project to benefit both practitioners and researchers.
- Participants will learn barriers and facilitators for implementing mental health promotion interventions in the workplace with a particular focus on SMEs.
- Ethical considerations in conducting applied intervention research and developing materials for implementation across a number of partnering countries and cultures will be explored.
- Methods for evaluation and development procedure for an interventions’ theory of change will be illustrated.
- COVID-19 related factors associated with mental health in the workplace setting.
Youth interventions for suicide: Building evidence base and dissemination at scale. LivingWorks SafeTALK for young people workshop and panel.
Presented by Shayne Connell, Jenny Pickup, Marc Bryant, Dr Pete Gutierrez, LivingWorks, & others TBC.
LivingWorks SafeTALK for Young People is a new 3-hour suicide-alertness workshop that provides practical skills for intervening with a young person considering suicide. developed with the support of research partner, Orygen Youth, at the University of Melbourne, the SafeTALK has embedded curricular simulations of interventions with young people at its core and is currently being rolled out at scale for 55,000 teaching/school staff in NSW.
If you work with young people (under the age of 25) through the school system, tertiary education, research or clinical pathways, sports, this session is for you.
- 3 hours- SafeTALK for Young People workshop – learn the skills to support a young person with thoughts of suicide, including identification and referral pathways.
- 30mins Panel- Youth Suicide Evidence-base and research SafeTALK.
