Following the 2018 release of the NSW Mental Health Commission’s Strategic Framework for Suicide Prevention 2018-2023, the NSW Government allocated $90M of new funding over three years, for a range of initiatives to reduce deaths by suicide and the harm associated with deaths and attempts. The suite of initiatives, known as Towards Zero Suicides (TZS). This report evaluated six of the 15 TZS initiatives between 2020 and 2023, including:
Safe Havens
- Suicide Prevention Outreach Teams (SPOT)
- Zero Suicides in Care (ZSiC)
- Community Gatekeeper Training
- Post Suicide Support
- i.am/ Youth Aftercare
This overarching TZS evaluation report seeks to draw on the findings from the evaluation to understand collectively across the six initiatives:
- The quality of the design and implementation processes
- The outcomes that have been achieved from the interventions
- The impact of the interventions, and
- The costs and benefits of the interventions.
Key features of the evaluation process included:
- Input from a world-class collaborative research group, combining lived experience of suicide with clinical and academic expertise in suicide prevention, evaluation theory, and a strong understanding of government systems and practice
- Co-design of the evaluations, as well as the engagement of peer researchers to ensure the voice of those with lived experience of suicide were incorporated into findings
- Deliverables that could be translated into practice and relevant to senior decision-making
- Rigorous measurement and detailed statistical analysis of outcomes.