Two University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) projects that will advance our understanding of suicide and suicide prevention have been awarded Queensland Mental Health Commission funding.
Associate Professor Annette Brömdal and their research team received $100,000 to investigate the impact of access to gender-affirming healthcare on suicide prevention.
The project aims to prevent suicide, increase resilience, and inform transformational change in the trans and gender-diverse (TGD) community by taking a mixed-methods three-phase approach involving a state survey, narrative interviews, and yarning methodologies.
Associate Professor Brömdal said there was a significant gap in research on suicide and suicide prevention related to TGD people in Queensland.
“Recent studies have found there is an alarming increase in the number of suicides among TGD communities,” she said.
“One of the leading contributors to poor mental health outcomes for the TGD population is lack of access to gender-affirming healthcare, including gender-affirming surgery.
“The lack of research, data and understanding about suicide related to TGD people highlights the urgent need to investigate TGD suicide and suicide prevention in Queensland.
“Our research aims to understand experiences of accessing gender-affirming healthcare; explore barriers and enablers of psychiatrists experience in becoming a gender-affirming healthcare specialist; and examine publicly available models of gender-affirming healthcare in jurisdictions outside Australia.”
The second project – how to keep safe online and improve online support for people in suicide distress – received just under $90,000 and will be led by Professor Andrea Lamont-Mills.
The project aims to increase online safety by using a prospective language-based, three-phase approach that identifies and then compares suicide communication practices across two different forums.
Professor Lamont-Mills said they would use the findings to develop and pilot test a professional development communication training package for moderators and peer moderators.
“The problem with current online forum safety research is that researchers determine whether suicide content or online communication and interactions are harmful or helpful,” she said.
“This ignores the actual experiences of those using these forums and whether they find talking about suicide with others helpful or harmful for them.
“Currently, we don’t know much about how people talk about suicide online and how this talk contributes to preventing someone from taking their own life.
“This means that the potential of online discussion forums as safe and supportive options for people in suicidal distress remains unrealised.
“Our research aims to identify the communication practices that shift online forum users away from a suicidal crisis and toward taking safety actions, actions that keep them alive.”
The two projects were among five to receive a total of $630,000 from the Suicide Prevention Research Scheme, an initiative of the Queensland Mental Health Commission.
