VICDOC Autumn 2025 - Magazine - Page 14
I
n 2024 the app was awarded first place
in Victoria for Innovative Practice by
Suicide Prevention Australia. It works
by activating the direct involvement of
close contacts of people with suicidal
ideation, harnessing emotionally powerful
personal connections and helping to save
lives at no cost to the patient, family or
health service. No training is needed. The
texts cover what to ask, say and do.
“Our core concept is that multiple
ongoing selected texts from the most
important people in the life of a person
with suicidal ideas reduce isolation and
emotional pain and deter suicidal acts,”
says the Australian Suicide Prevention
Foundation (ASPF)’s founder,
Dr David Horgan.
Prevent A Suicide: What to Say
(Prevent A Suicide, for short) supplements
the current standard but limited advice
(of persuading an at-risk person to have
a one-off crisis call to a lay volunteer, or
to visit a professional) with ongoing and
multi-source messages from colleagues,
friends and family.
The app provides hundreds of specific,
medically approved texts, derived
from phrases used by mental health
professionals. The messages are approved
by Lived Experience Australia and Roses
in the Ocean.
Users can select a message, download
it to the messages or WhatsApp screen
on their phone with one click, modify or
personalise it if they wish, and then send
the message to the person at risk.
“We provide hundreds of messages
in the app, which reinforce life-saving
connections, exude support, reduce
suicidal distress, and make self-harm more
difficult. Each arriving text wraps very
personal human bonds around the person
contemplating suicide.”
David says an at-risk person’s family,
friends and colleagues are a powerful and
untapped reserve of supporters. Knowing
the person best, they are well placed to
detect early onset of suicidal thinking,
and to act. They can be available around
the clock and are likely to persevere with
supporting the person – and mobilising
others in their network to do the same –
over days or weeks, as needed.
This world-first concept is the latest
innovation from David and the ASPF.
It complements the organisation’s existing
range of websites that offer support and
recovery services for depression, youth
suicide, suicide prevention, and support
for those affected by another’s suicide.
Sadly, suicide affects millions of
Australians every year. A busload of
people dies every week from suicide,
and a planeload of people attempt suicide
every day. In 2022, over three million
Australians reported having had serious
thoughts of suicide, almost one million
attempted suicide, and 38% of Australians
were close to someone who took or
attempted to take their own life.
Learn more about the
Australian Suicide Prevention
Foundation's suite of support
services on page 17
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AMA VI C TO RIA
