Welcome to the Queensland Suicide and Self-Harm Conference 2008, hosted by the Dr Edward Koch Foundation and the FNQ Suicide Prevention Taskforce. The Conference will have a strong Indigenous and Multicultural focus.  Themes for the conference are:

• Self-harm
• Early intervention
• Postvention and bereavement

In 2006, the Department of Communities hosted the Queensland Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Conference in Brisbane. The Conference provided a valuable forum to address suicide and self-harm prevention issues.

The second conference to be held in Cairns, and hosted by the Dr Edward Koch Foundation, will again provide an opportunity for delegates to formulate strategies and gain information on this pressing social problem. It will provide an ideal medium to exchange ideas and offer support for health professionals and others engaged in suicide prevention, counselling, and suicide bereavement support. 

Recent deaths in Far North Queensland have graphically and tragically demonstrated that suicide continues to present a serious challenge to this community, and outcomes from this conference will aid with the Foundation’s mandate to help prevent suicide. Conferences which present a relevant, stimulating and meaningful program form a necessary education, communication and networking tool for communities, and provide the means to take significant steps forward which cannot be achieved in any other way, especially for smaller and regional organisations. 

In remote localities like Far North Queensland, the ability to exchange ideas, to generate new strategies and to achieve substantial progress is triply hindered and constrained by the tyrannies of cost, distance and small population. 

It is hoped that the conference will increase the knowledge, capacity and skills of the health community to respond early and effectively to suicide behaviour.  By building links between organisations, the effectiveness of the support provided to people at risk will be greatly enhanced, and the coordination of the health system will be improved.

The Dr Edward Koch Foundation has earned a significant reputation in the Far North Queensland community for its work in the public health arena, and is especially recognised for its role in suicide and self harm prevention.  It manages the FNQ Suicide Prevention Taskforce and the Cairns Region StandBy Suicide Bereavement Response Service, which provides a 24 hour crisis service to those bereaved by suicide.