Focus on men as a priority population at National Suicide Prevention Conference 2024
Australian Men’s Health Forum CEO Glen Poole will be a guest speaker at the 2024 National Prevention Suicide Conference, which will be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre from April 30 – May 2.
Glen will present a talk titled ‘Men in Suicide Prevention’ at a session on priority populations on Day 1 of the conference.
He is one of approximately 120 speakers at the Conference, which SPA has themed ‘Collective Courage. Accelerate Impact.’
Presentation streams will cover lived experience, research, service design and best practice, policy impact and systematic change, groups disproportionately affected by suicide, and learning and development.
More than 600 delegates will attend the conference, which SPA hosted for the first time 25 years ago.
Keynote speakers include Aboriginal Elder Professor Tom Calma AO, who worked in the public sector for over 45 years and is currently on several boards and committees focusing on rural and remote Australia, health, mental health and suicide prevention.
Nathan Bolton, founder and director of Bolton Brothers, a psychology company focused on changing the face of men’s mental health, will highlight the importance of taking a gendered approach to mental health services, noting that men make up 7 out of 9 deaths by suicide in Australia.
Nick Kaldas APM, currently serving as Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide, will speak at the plenary on April 30 at 12 p.m.
Melbourne University researcher Michael J Wilson will present on ‘Relationship breakdown and men’s suicidality: A unified approach to a complex problem,’ and Nicholas Thompson will address ‘Mates in Construction Enhancing impact by working with industry to develop new initiatives.’
Jorgen Gullestrup, the founding CEO of MATES, follows with a look at ‘the concept of mateship in a construction industry workplace suicide prevention program’.