Reform called for to aid First Nations-led suicide prevention

A First Nations-led suicide prevention priorities paper developed entirely through a lived-experience lens has been released, calling for culture-centred reform, investment in healing, and urgent partnership with First Nations leaders.

The Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre (IALEC) has launched Priorities for Suicide Prevention: A First Nations Lived Experience Collective Statement, which the organisation describes as the first of its kind developed wholly through First Nations lived-experience leadership.

The paper emerged from an in-person National Indigenous Lived Experience Group gathering on Waiben (Thursday Island) last year.

The document has positioned lived experience as foundational to effective policy and service design, stating that those who have survived distress or attempts, supported loved ones, grieved loss, or held community healing responsibilities carry critical knowledge for change.

IALEC — an Indigenous-led organisation advancing suicide prevention through lived experience leadership — recently transitioned from operating within the Black Dog Institute to become fully self-determined.

Key Points

Development and authorship

The paper was co-authored by more than 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with lived experience of suicide and distress. Contributors produced a collective statement outlining 10 priority areas for action.

The authors have centred a First Nations-led approach to suicide prevention, placing culture at the heart of well-being and positioning lived experience leadership as the driver of design, delivery and evaluation.

The collaborative process has been described as grounded in culturally safe engagement, with ownership and authorship held by First Nations lived experience leaders.

IALEC and the NILEG emphasised that mainstream approaches driven by Western frameworks have frequently excluded the on-the-ground knowledge held within Community, and that this work seeks to address that gap through direct leadership by those most affected.

Key measures and priorities

The paper has identified multiple measures that the authors say are essential to a culture-centred suicide prevention response. The priorities include:

• Investing in culture as essential prevention infrastructure
• Supporting healing from both individual and collective trauma
• Building a properly resourced First Nations peer workforce
• Establishing intersectional, culturally responsive services across systems
• Recognising social justice issues — including housing, racism and poverty — as central drivers of suicide risk
• Returning ownership of stories and lived experiences to First Nations people

IALEC stated that the message of the paper was clear and grounded in Community leadership. The organisation highlighted the need to move beyond longstanding practices driven by Western frameworks that have not adequately incorporated First Nations lived experience.

TheNational Indigenous Lived Experience Group has called on governments, services, researchers and sector partners to walk alongside First Nations lived experience leaders and to invest in these priorities with urgency, respect and accountability.

The group has urged stakeholders to honour the sustained advocacy by community members who continue to push for change in the face of ongoing loss.

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