The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry
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Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Sep 2020
Systems modelling and simulation to inform strategic decision making for suicide prevention in rural New South Wales (Australia).
The need to understand and respond to the unique characteristics and drivers of suicidal behaviour in rural areas has been enabled through the Australian Government's 2015 mental health reforms facilitating a move to an evidence-based, regional approach to suicide prevention. However, a key challenge has been the complex decision-making environment and lack of appropriate tools to facilitate the use of evidence, data and expert knowledge in a way that can inform contextually appropriate strategies that will deliver the greatest impact. This paper reports the co-development of an advanced decision support tool that enables regional decision makers to explore the likely impacts of their decisions before implementing them in the real world. ⋯ Systems modelling and simulation offers significant potential for regional decision makers to better understand and respond to the unique characteristics and drivers of suicidal behaviour in their catchments and more effectively allocate limited health resources.