The Australian Evaluation Society awarded our team, along with our partner ARTD Consultants, for their large mixed-method study centred on suicide prevention. Working with NSW Health, we evaluated six new initiatives that were part of the Government’s Towards Zero Suicides suite.
The Best Public Sector Evaluation recognises “exemplary evaluation work conducted within the Australasian public sector that has been used to effect real and observable changes in policies or programs”. Led by Hugh Miller, Ramona Meyricke and Dennis Lam, the resulting report linked state and Commonwealth data, offering a rare system-wide view of suicide prevention efforts in NSW.
The six programs evaluated form part of the NSW Ministry of Health’s Towards Zero Suicides initiatives – a $2.9 billion, multi-year investment in mental health services. The Australian Evaluation Society (AES) said the work “strongly demonstrated change and contribution to knowledge at a broad scale”, including “practical tools and frameworks [to] guide future evaluation practice”. Our report was strengthened, it said, by the embedded nature of diverse experts, such as an Indigenous reference group and people with lived experience.
On accepting the award on behalf of Taylor Fry, Hugh said, “It was a long and sometimes challenging project but we delivered something pretty special. I’m particularly proud of the use of longitudinal linked data, as a way of understanding what happens to people before and after accessing a service or program, crucially important in this space.”
He said the evaluation also demonstrates that suicide prevention is everybody’s business. “More than half of the people who die by suicide do not have a suicide-related or mental health interaction with Commonwealth or state health systems in the year prior to death. This means that achieving large reductions in deaths also requires investment in strengthening our communities, looking out for the vulnerable and isolated, and ensuring our non-health government services are run in ways that are not harmful. Tough but worthy work.”
For a summary of the evaluation, view our article, NSW Ministry of Health releases Taylor Fry report.
Read the report in full – the overarching report Evaluation of Suicide Prevention Initiatives or the brief Summary Report.
Visit the Australian Evaluation Society for more on the Best Public Sector Evaluation Award.
