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Today, Wednesday 10 September, is World Suicide Prevention Day. This year’s theme, Changing the Narrative on Suicide, challenges us all to shift how we think and talk about suicide. It’s a call to reduce stigma by encouraging openness, empathy and action, so that people who are struggling feel heard, supported and connected.
Here in the Hawkesbury and across the wider Nepean Blue Mountains region, the Suicide Prevention Collaborative is leading this important work. The group brings together people with lived and living experience of suicide, alongside representatives from government and non-government organisations, volunteers, community groups and business owners. United by a shared goal, they are working to reduce suicide rates across the Hawkesbury, Blue Mountains, Lithgow and Penrith areas.
Since March this year, the Collaborative has been meeting regularly to design activities that will make a real difference. These include building the community’s capacity to recognise the signs of distress, and giving people the confidence to reach out and offer support when it’s needed most. Their work also focuses on aftercare following a suicide attempt, and on walking alongside families and communities after a suicide loss.
The initiative is supported by Wentworth Healthcare, provider of the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network, through funding from the Australian Government’s Targeted Regional Initiatives for Suicide Prevention program.
Wentworth Healthcare CEO, Lizz Reay, said suicide prevention can only succeed when it is truly community-led.
“Suicide is a deeply complex issue that requires a whole-of-community approach. Preventing suicide takes a collective effort from a diverse group of people, such as those who make up the Collaborative and other agencies, to ensure we are looking at the different angles and perspectives to help prevent suicide,” she said.
On a day like today, the Collaborative’s message is clear: connection saves lives. By listening without judgement, supporting one another, and working together, we can build a community where no one feels alone in their struggles.
