Cultural Conversations: Suicide Prevention

Cultural Conversations was a collaborative event that came about through on going conversations in the community. Suicides and attempts are happening, and as the system and culture navigators, young multicultural adults are desperate for more support. This event was designed for young people and by young people. Key features of this event from catering, promotion, agenda and selection of speakers was led and consulted by young multicultural people.

The aim of the day was to provide young multicultural adults a space where they can have their voices heard directly, and for service providers to be able to hear and share information - around how we can reduce and respond to suicide in our diverse communities.

In the lead up to the event, we had garned a huge response from various service providers such as the Western Australian Mental Health Commission, headspace Schools and other local services. Due to the response, a waitlist was incorporated to manage the demand. On the day approximately 45 service providers and 25 young multicultural people attend this event.

The day was made up of a panel speakers and cultural healing and reflective activities. Two panels were created; one for young multicultural people who had lived experience of suicide or mental health problems. The second panel was for sector professionals who have had experience working in the mental health and or multicultural communities. The questions formulated came directly from the attendees in order to appropriately respond to the questions and needs of the community.

After the panel discussion we invited all attendees to mingle and share traditional Lebanese lunch. The next session jumped into a World Cafe to collectively discuss, provide insight and outline potential solutions to improve mental health outcomes for young multicultural people.

The event closed with reflective activities to debrief the event and a brief discussion to discuss where to from here?. Our event ended with afternoon tea of authentic Rwandan coffee, tea and Middle Eastern desserts.

This event was organised by headspace Armadale, headspace Midland and the Suicide Prevention Coordinator team at Neami National.