International Conference 2024 | Suicide Postvention Planning, Response, and Recovery in Tertiary Education Panel

The 10th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health (ICSWHMH) was held in November 2024 in Melbourne. This significant event in successfully brought together social work professionals, researchers, educators, and students from around the world to discuss and share the latest developments in the field of social work in health and mental health.

Suicide Postvention Planning, Response, and Recovery in Tertiary Education Panel

The timely provision of support following a suicide is typically activated by university wellbeing teams, with social workers representing a significant proportion of this workforce. Without prior knowledge of the university’s detailed response to suicide, and alignment of this to whole-of-university critical incident policies, wellbeing staff report lacking in confidence to navigate the complexities of responding to risk within a vulnerable community.

Our panel of social workers, Jessica Morgan - headspace National Program Manager, Paula Diab - Senior Counsellor Western Sydney University, and Georgina Hanna - Deputy Director Student Mental Health and Wellbeing La Trobe University, will share their experiences of working within the tertiary sector to design and implement responses to suicide that builds confidence within wellbeing teams that the support offered is aligned with the activation of the university’s critical incident policy.

This panel discussion will:

• Demonstrate the importance of having knowledge of the university’s detailed response to suicide, and alignment of this to whole-of-university critical incident policies,
• Highlight the role of social workers in contributing to conversations of planning, response, and recovery, and
• Prompt consideration of suicide postvention response plans becoming embedded within whole-of-university critical incident policy if the risk is to be mitigated.

Presenters:

• Jessica Morgan - headspace National Program Manager
• Paula Diab - Senior Counsellor Western Sydney University
• Georgina Hanna - Deputy Director Student Mental Health and Wellbeing La Trobe University

AASW Credential: Mental Health