- Title
- Our healthy Clarence: a community-driven wellbeing initiative
- Creator
- Powell, Nicholas; Dalton, Hazel; Perkins, David; Considine, Robyn; Hughes, Sue; Osborne, Samantha; Buss, Richard
- Relation
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Vol. 16, Issue 19, no. 3691
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193691
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- In 2015–2016, the Clarence Valley in Northern New South Wales, Australia, experienced an unexpectedly high number of deaths by suicide, and the resulting distress was exacerbated by unhelpful press coverage. The local response was to adopt a community-wide positive mental health and wellbeing initiative. This paper describes the process and achievements of the initiative called ‘Our Healthy Clarence’. Key stakeholders were interviewed at year two and relevant documents reviewed. Data were analysed using document and thematic analysis. Our Healthy Clarence was established following community consultation, including forums, interviews, surveys and workshops. It adopted a strengths-based approach to suicide prevention, encompassing positive health promotion, primary and secondary prevention activities, advocacy, and cross-sectoral collaboration. A stakeholder group formed to develop and enact a community mental health and wellbeing plan. Factors contributing to its successful implementation included a collective commitment to mental health and wellbeing, clarity of purpose, leadership support from key local partners, a paid independent coordinator, and inclusive and transparent governance. Stakeholders reported increased community agency, collaboration, optimism and willingness to discuss mental health, suicide and help-seeking. Our Healthy Clarence draws ideas from mental health care, community development and public health. This initiative could serve as a model for other communities to address suicide, self-harm and improve wellbeing on a whole-of-community scale.
- Subject
- wellbeing; community-driven initiative; mental health capacity building; collaboration; public health; community development; mental health promotion; suicide prevention; rural
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1410946
- Identifier
- uon:36258
- Identifier
- ISSN:1660-4601
- Rights
- © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being
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