About the framework
The framework aims to improve the pathway of care for individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviours and support their families, carers and supporters. It also builds workplace culture and workforce capability and confidence to support optimal care.
The 2021 Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System highlighted the framework as an opportunity for services to improve care for people with suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
The framework sets out proven tools, processes and practices that assist services improve the experience of care they can provide to consumers with suicidal thoughts and behaviours, their families, carers and supporters.
How we partner with services
The MHIP supports Victorian healthcare services to align and refine their current approaches by:
- providing health services specific ‘Aligning and Refining’ workshops to self-assess against the framework and identify opportunities for improvement
- using improvement methodology
- drawing on the perspectives of those with lived and living experience
- supporting partnering services to share their learnings and insights with other services
- fostering collaboration and growth of workforce capability to drive and sustain meaningful improvement.
Building lasting change
With support of the MHIP, Victorian healthcare services can map the strengths of their organisation against the framework and identify opportunities to improve their practice. These might include change ideas, such as:
- uplifting culture
- providing additional workforce training
- improving communication between consumers, their families, carers and supporters, and their healthcare teams.
Participating services test changes and evaluate how effective they have been in improving the quality of care they provide for consumers, their family and carers. They also examine how these changes impact the capability and confidence of the workforce.
Path ahead
As of 2024, 4 mental health and wellbeing services are working with the MHIP to adopt the framework. The aim is to support adoption of the Zero Suicide Framework across all Victorian healthcare services in the future.
Zero Suicide Toolkit
This material adapts content from the Zero Suicide Toolkit. The Zero Suicide Toolkit is administered by Zero Suicide Institute at Education Development Center (EDC), Inc.
EDC developed the Zero Suicide framework through the USA federally-funded Suicide Prevention Resource Center and National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.
Learn more
Learn more about how the MHIP is partnering with services to align to the Zero Suicide Framework.