Year: 2004 Source: NSPS Community Initiatives, v.2, (July 2004) SIEC No: 20090418

Suicide prevention was clearly identified as a relevant concern for a wide variety of stakeholder agencies. Stakeholders involved in the projects valued the noncompetitive tendering and collaborative approaches promoted; whilst time is needed to establish the trust and working relationships needed for efficient collaboration, this needed to be used more optimally. Organisational rather than individual level partnership stipulating early clarification of partner roles and the degree of commitment required would have better optimised project implementation and promoted easier on-going engagement with service provider agencies. Greater pro-active involvement in decision-making would have helped to solidify engagement relationships, generated the implementation of collective strategies sooner and protected initiatives from delays caused by staff turnover. There is, however, evidence of the sustainability of the service model in the Northern Metropolitan Adelaide region. The extent to which the model and suicide prevention more generally translates into the core activities of service provision in this region are keenly awaited. Whilst the evidence base for good practice has been progressed, full managerial commitment to the integration of pro-active evaluation activities by project staff in some instances, and greater resource allocation to the evaluation of these complex, contextually diverse and evolving initiatives would have further enhanced this.