I presented a poster on Forecasting Regional Suicide Risk in Australia Using Linked Administrative Data at the National Suicide Prevention Conference 2026 on 29 April 2026. This work is funded by the National Suicide Prevention Office and studies how linked administrative data can support regional suicide prevention planning in Australia.
The conference was especially useful for thinking about regionally specific approaches to suicide prevention. Several sessions emphasised that suicide prevention cannot rely only on clinical or crisis services, and that local service pathways, community context, and whole-of-government action matter for designing interventions that can actually work in different places.
The discussion around the NSW Suicide Prevention Act 2025 was closely connected to this work. The Act’s focus on statewide planning, agency accountability, data infrastructure, monitoring, and evaluation strengthens the case for administrative-data research that identifies regional risk patterns, service-contact pathways, and possible intervention points beyond the formal health system.