Citation

Myles H, Tan SY, Large M. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Psychiatry 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/00048674211025720

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Zero Suicide movement champions the goal of eliminating suicide in mental healthcare. In addition to being a target, Zero Suicide is a framework for system-wide, organisational commitment to safer care centred on systematic approaches to quality improvement in the areas of leadership, training, engagement and treatment. In the March 2021 issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (ANZJP), Turner et al. (2021) describe a local implementation of the Zero Suicide Framework.

Preparing for change

Last year in ANZJP, Malhi et al. (2020) introduced a conceptual shift in thinking by distilling evidence that suicidal behaviour results in reorganisation of the brain circuitry of the self and its relations. This reconceptualization of the drivers of repeated suicide behaviour proposes that suicides occur after a breakdown of connections with vital elements within one's life (relationships, self-worth, current situation) and that these are mirrored in breaks in neural connections. The Turner and Malhi papers, respectively, describe novel ideas about clinical teams and the brains they care for. As the southern hemisphere's premiere psychiatric journal, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (ANZJP) hosts debates that can drive conceptual shifts and improvements in patient care. Here, we propose a complementary change to the structure of the built environments of mental healthcare that we believe might provide both a tipping point for improved team performance and a better starting point for the many different patient journeys to recovery...

Language: en