Citation

Ludowyk N, Trail K, Morecroft R. Aust. Psychol. 2023; 58(2): 51-56.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Australian Psychological Society, Publisher Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1080/00050067.2022.2158063

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Young people living in regional and rural areas of Australia are at an increased risk of suicide and have unique barriers and facilitators to seeking mental health support. As such, specific mental health and suicide prevention programmes that are tailored to young people within their communities are required. Despite this, peer-reviewed literature on such interventions is scant. In this commentary, we outline an existing rural place-based programme; Live4Life, created in 2009 in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria, and now running in nine Australian regional communities. We demonstrate that Live4Life shows promise in building the capacity of whole communities to support young people to recognise and seek help for mental health concerns. As such, we argue the need for further evaluation comparing Live4Life communities with matched control communities to assess the long-term impact of the programme and to support the upscaling of Live4Life across Australian regional and rural communities. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Language: en

Keywords

youth mental health; early intervention; Youth suicide prevention; place-based initiatives; rural and regional