Our Suicide Prevention Services
The Suicide Prevention services in Murrumbidgee are part of the Towards Zero Suicides initiative, which aims to provide leading best practice crisis care and support, build on local community resilience and improve systems and practices to reduce the suicide rate in NSW.
The Suicide Prevention Outreach Team (SPOT) is part of the NSW Health Towards Zero Suicides initiatives being developed across the Murrumbidgee region.
The Suicide Prevention Outreach Team provides community response for people experiencing a suicidal crisis or who may be at risk of suicide. The team is staffed by peer workers with lived experience of suicidal distress alongside clinical staff.
The aim of SPOT is to help people in distress to be supported more quickly, wherever they live in the Murrumbidgee region. SPOT will provide support for people in their community when they need it.
Referrals to SPOT are made through the Mental Health Emergency Consultation Service (MHECS) when people present to an Emergency Department, or one of our Community Mental Health services.
Our two Safe Haven services are warm, welcoming spaces for people experiencing a suicidal crisis. People attending the Safe Havens will receive compassionate care provided by peer workers with a lived experience of suicidality.
There are two Safe Haven locations - one in Wagga Wagga and one in Griffith.
The services are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 2.00pm to 9.00pm. You do not need a referral to attend.
As part of the Towards Zero Suicides Premier’s Priority, Murrumbidgee MHDA (along with all other NSW Local Health Districts) has received funding from NSW Health to improve the way public Mental Health services respond to people experiencing suicidal thoughts.
There are a number of changes being made across the Murrumbidgee District to improve the care that is provided to people experiencing suicidal distress or crisis.
We have recently introduced a Suicide Prevention Pathway to ensure that every person that attends our service is able to receive high quality evidence based treatment responses.
In practice this means that if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, your key clinician from Community Mental Health, or a staff member of the inpatient unit may work with you using the CAMS-care framework.
The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality, known as CAMS-care is a ‘philosophy of care’ that can help people experiencing suicidal thoughts by identifying and targeting the problems that drive them to consider ending their life.
The CAMS-care approach treats people at risk of suicide with:
- Empathy
- Collaboration
- Honesty
- Focusing on what makes a person suicidal
Your clinician will work with you to create a safety plan and connect you to resources that will help you get through difficult moments.
Share your feedback
Hearing the views and ideas of people with lived experience of distress and suicidal thoughts, as well as members of the broader community, is an important part of making sure that our suicide prevention services and initiatives meet the needs of the community, carers and people experiencing suicidal crisis.
We are working on an update of the information materials we use to let the community know about the Safe Haven and Suicide Prevention Outreach Team (SPOT) services. We would love to know what you think of the updated versions - if they include the information you think is important, or if they could be improved.
Please tell us what you think in the feedback options below. The survey and poll will be open until 9am Monday 24th June.
Quick Poll - Safe Haven Key Message
What do you think of the key message on our new promotional items?
Review our new information resources
Please download the draft leaflets below and then tell us what you think in our quick survey.
The leaflets are to gather feedback from the community and are not finalised - please do not share these elsewhere.
Your feedback helps us make sure that the leaflets clearly explain what the services offer and help people feel comfortable to access them in a time of need.
