Investigators
Professor Ashleigh Lin, Dr Nicole Hill, Hamza Bouras, Shanara Quartermaine, Associate Professor Yael Perry, Dr Bep Uink, Dr Jacinta Francis, Dr Gail Alvares, A/Prof Francis Mitrou, Dr Jonathan Bullen, Dr Jacinta Saldaris, A/Prof Jenny Downs, Dr Hayley Passmore, A/Prof Ben Jackson and Dr Penelope Strauss, Dr Samantha Speirs.
Project description
Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24 years in Western Australia. Current services are limited, stretched and frequently unable to respond to the needs of young people in crisis. Young people do not like the fact that the emergency department is the only place they can go when they are feeling suicidal. An alternative is desperately needed.
The Youth Safe Haven Project will co-design a youth-specific Safe Haven Café within the Peel Health Hub to serve as an alternative to the emergency department for young people at risk of suicide. Safe Haven Cafes are non-clinical spaces that provide peer-led support to people experiencing a mental health crisis, with the aim of improving the person’s experience and reducing burden on the hospital system. In this project, we will collaborate with young people, parents/carers, and key stakeholders from the Peel community over a period of 6 months, with the aim of co-designing a Youth Safe Haven Café (YSHC) model that is safe and appropriate for all young people, useful for stakeholders in the region, and can be feasibly implemented for project partners. We are partnered with Youth Focus and GP down south
To achieve this, we will conduct semi-structured interviews and/or focus groups with the following groups of people:
- Young people aged 12-25 years who have had lived and living experience of suicidal thoughts and/or behaviours,
- Parents/caregivers of children and young people up to the age of 25 years who have lived or living experience of suicidal thoughts and/or behaviours, and
- People (other than primary carers) who work with or support young people who are feeling suicidal (“stakeholders”).
We will run co-design with both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous cohorts. Interviews can be conducted online or face-to-face.
Project outputs
Project success will be a fully designed Youth Safe Haven Café (YSHC) that is safe and appropriate for all young people, useful for stakeholders in the region and feasibly implemented for project partners
Funders of the project
Innovation Challenge 2021: Child and Youth Mental Health Stage 1
External collaborators
Youth Focus and GP down south
For more information please contact
Sam Speirs Samantha.Speirs@telethonkids.org.au (08) 6319 1291
If you would like to take part in this project
Please visit https://forms.gle/VokxoJFMVhEbAefKA