The Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Health and Wel­fare reports that in Aus­tralia, about nine peo­ple die by sui­cide each day. The impact is mag­ni­fied in rur­al, region­al and remote areas where increased con­nect­ed­ness means the loss of a sin­gle person’s life rip­ples out into an entire community. 

WA Min­is­ter for Health and Men­tal Health, Mered­ith Ham­mat, says, ​“Trag­i­cal­ly, too many West­ern Aus­tralians have expe­ri­enced the dev­as­tat­ing effects of a loved one’s death by suicide.”

“Our gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to sui­cide pre­ven­tion, and this invest­ment will pro­vide our men­tal health work­force with enhanced skills and train­ing for the chal­leng­ing job they face when con­front­ed with a sui­ci­dal cri­sis in our community.” 

CRANAplus Bush Sup­port Line Senior Psy­chol­o­gist, Dr Nicole Jef­fery-Dawes, is a WA local liv­ing and work­ing on Miri­woong Country/​Kununurra.

She says, ​“Sui­cide has impact­ed the com­mu­ni­ty where I live as every­one knows every­one… so when there is a death by sui­cide, every­one is affect­ed, every­one knows about it and every­one is grieving.” 

Nicole and the CRANAplus’ Men­tal Health & Well- being team use Safe­Side as their cho­sen sui­cide pre­ven­tion train­ing provider and use the frame­work for assess­ing and man­ag­ing sui­cide risk. 

As part of their cur­rent project, Safe­Side is tai­lor­ing its sui­cide pre­ven­tion edu­ca­tion pro­gram to reflect the real-world expe­ri­ences and needs of West­ern Australians.

Nicole spe­cialis­es in rur­al and remote men­tal health, mak­ing the Safe­Side project an ide­al plat­form for shar­ing her expertise.

In the videos, she cov­ers essen­tial top­ics includ­ing dri­vers of sui­cide in remote com­mu­ni­ties, approach­es for sen­si­tive con­ver­sa­tions with com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and cul­tur­al safe­ty prac­tices. But per­haps most impor­tant­ly, she shares a les­son learned dur­ing her time in the Tana­mi Desert: remote health pro­fes­sion­als must recog­nise that com­mu­ni­ties them­selves know what works best for them.

“I wasn’t the expert when it came to men­tal health, or any­thing. I need­ed to sit back, observe and lis­ten and learn.”

Nicole also says it’s crit­i­cal to give peo­ple hope. 

“There are so many oppor­tu­ni­ties to get in there and help peo­ple, and it’s about pro­vid­ing hope to those peo­ple who are feel­ing like that, in that moment. It doesn’t mean they’re always going to feel like that.” 

When sup­port­ing some­one through a cri­sis, Nicole’s advice is sim­ple but pow­er­ful: show up as your authen­tic self, make it clear you’re in this jour­ney togeth­er, and don’t car­ry the weight alone. 

“Work­ing in that space can be con­fronting, and there are times we need to take stock to look after our­selves,” Nicole says. 

“I think at the end of the day, every­one with­in that com­mu­ni­ty has an inte­gral role when it comes to sui­cide pre­ven­tion. Every­one can keep an eye out.” 

“The biggest thing is to help the com­mu­ni­ty under­stand what to look out for, what to notice … and just to keep talk­ing to people.” 

This WA Men­tal Health Com­mis­sion-fund­ed train­ing will sup­port those work­ing in men­tal health, alco­hol and oth­er drugs ser­vices, and youth ser­vices, to help staff respond dur­ing a sui­ci­dal cri­sis. It will extend and com­ple­ment West­ern Australia’s sui­cide pre­ven­tion ini­tia­tives fund­ed under the West­ern Aus­tralian Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Frame­work 2021 – 2025.

Nicole’s par­tic­i­pa­tion will enhance the deliv­ery by ensur­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion of rur­al and remote work­force per­spec­tives, and by increas­ing the relata­bil­i­ty and res­o­nance of con­tent for region­al, rur­al and remote audiences. 

Ref­er­ences

1. AIHW (Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Health and Wel­fare) (2025) Sui­cide & self-harm mon­i­tor­ing, AIHW, accessed 9 Sep­tem­ber 2025. www​.aihw​.gov​.au/​s​u​i​c​i​d​e​-​s​e​l​f​h​a​r​m​-​m​o​n​i​t​o​r​i​n​g​/​o​v​e​r​v​i​e​w​/​s​u​mmary

2. Gov­ern­ment of West­ern Aus­tralia (2025) Upskilling men­tal health work­force to pre­vent deaths by sui­cide, Gov­ern­ment of West­ern Aus­tralia, accessed 9 Sep­tem­ber 2025. www.wa.gov.au/government/mediastatements/Cook%20Labor%20Government/Upskilling-mental-health-workforce-toprevent-deaths-by-suicide-20250520