5.6 Building mental health capability

The APS Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit promotes developing APS workforce literacy, capability and expertise in mental health and suicide prevention. It also provides practical support and coaching to APS agencies, as they align their practices to the APS Mental Health Capability Framework (Figure 5.7). This framework provides agencies with a foundation to guide and underpin the development of programs to build mental health capability in the context of their specific operating environments.

The unit is actively supporting over 25 agencies to align their practice to the framework. These agencies are diverse in their operating contexts and include PM&C and the Department of Social Services. Agencies involved in the 2020–21 pilot of the framework are continuing to align their practice, with IP Australia’s Director of People Support, Leonie Graham, highlighting the benefits of the framework’s integrated approach.

'The framework positions capability development for mental health and suicide prevention as an enterprise-level approach, using multiple levers to ensure traction throughout the organisation. Using the framework’s overarching structure, we have been able to adapt it to our operating context and internal culture. And with our integrated HR service model, IP Australia’s implementation has been highly effective, aligning all the streams of HR to deliver a cohesive mental health and wellbeing experience for employees. Through the use of the Maturity Scale Assessment, IP Australia can demonstrate our progress against the framework, and communicate the effectiveness of our investment to the workforce and the Senior Executive.'

- Leonie Graham, Director of People Support, IP Australia

Figure 5.7: APS Mental Health Capability Framework

A circular diagram of the APS Mental Health Capability Framework, split into six segments. The first segment under ‘workplace’ is ‘promote mental health’, the second and third segments under ‘worker’ are ‘support recovery pathways’ and ‘build literacy and develop capability’. The fourth segment under ‘workplace’ is ‘leadership and governance’. The fifth and sixth segments under ‘worker’ are is ‘evaluate and improve’, and ‘prevent harm’.

Source: APS Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit

The Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit has developed and launched a whole- of-service approach to building workforce capability in suicide prevention, through the Compassionate Foundations training suite. Compassionate Foundations is a six-module suicide prevention eLearning course available to all APS agencies. Participants learn concepts and skills that improve their understanding of distress, so they can have safe and effective conversations well before a crisis occurs. The course is informed by academic theory and people with lived experience. First Nations content was developed with cultural knowledge shared by Indigenous academics and clinicians.

Since its launch in 2022, more than 3,000 APS staff representing 75 agencies have enrolled in the course. Importantly, participants are reporting strong shifts in their suicide prevention capability.

Look, Listen and Link (Figure 5.8) promotes the understanding and adoption of three simple steps that can help make people feel safe and connected with others. In turn, this leads people to feel better able to help themselves.

Figure 5.8: Look, Listen and Link