SUICIDE PREVENTION

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:06): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government a question about suicide prevention training opportunities for medical students.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: For over four years I have advocated for the Community Response to Eliminating Suicide initiative. This chamber has also recently recognised the importance of community based responses to suicide prevention, including groups such as CORES. CORES is having a one-day suicide intervention course in Adelaide on 23 May this year, and I would encourage the minister, and indeed all members of this chamber, to consider doing the training if they are available. It is similar to a course that I organised here in Parliament House some years ago. I am pleased to say that at least one member of the other place has booked in to do the training next week. It is also similar to training that I must say that a number of people with a nursing background across South Australia and other parts of the country have shown great interest in doing.

Recently I travelled to Tasmania to check the progress and evolution of the CORES program. I was suitably impressed at the lengths that CORES has come in the few years between my visits. One of the most telling improvements has been the addition of the CORES course in the rural communities program of the University of Tasmania. This results in all medical and paramedical students being required to undertake this community-based training in a rural setting, including places like Ulverstone, Penguin and Sheffield.

In addition, I understand that consideration is being given to including pharmacy students in this training in the future. I think many of us here would realise that, in a lot of cases, people who are under some stress can actually get to a pharmacist much more quickly than they can get to a doctor, so I think that would be an important consideration. My question to the leader is: will she ask the Minister for Health and the Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education to investigate with their respective agencies and South Australian universities the opportunities for medical students and those studying in associated professions having community-based suicide prevention training included in their studies?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions and take this opportunity to commend the honourable member for his ongoing interest in this very important area. He has been a long-time campaigner and advocate, so that should be acknowledged and he needs to be commended for that.

Suicide prevention is an extremely important area of concern. I am sure that everyone in this chamber would agree that one suicide is one too many and that we should be looking at ways for us to move forward and reduce the number of suicides in Australia and South Australia. For the healthcare professionals, particularly our primary healthcare professionals—the front-liners, so to speak—it is especially important that they understand this problem well and are aware of early warning signs and understand and are aware of the appropriate action to take and the appropriate referrals to make.

I am very aware that healthcare professionals have an extremely broad-ranging set of responsibilities. The requirements for them to understand a great deal of highly specific and technical information, as well as to come to grips with a broad range of health and welfare knowledge, is enormous. There is a wide-ranging number of priorities and demands on their training and education time, both in terms of not just knowledge acquisition but also work experience.

As a former healthcare professional, I understand some of the challenges around those competing demands. With those few comments, I can say to the honourable member that I will pass on the information he shared in this chamber today to the Minister for Health in another place for his consideration.