A new HOPE for the mental health and wellbeing of young Victorians

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (Royal Commission) released an Interim Report in November 2019 identifying a gap in suicide prevention services for children and young people at risk of suicide and self-harm. The Royal Commission recommended that the Victorian Government fund four health services (Royal Children's Hospital, Monash Children's Hospital, Alfred Health and Orygen) to create, deliver and evaluate the first phase of an aftercare service for children and young people at risk of self-harm and suicide. The Royal Commission stipulated that the new service be informed by the experiences of children, young people, their families and carers, and by the program guidelines of the existing adult aftercare service known as the Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement (HOPE) program.

The HOPE program is a core component of Victoria’s suicide prevention framework 2016-25, which aims to halve Victoria’s suicide rate by 2025. It is a psychosocial and clinical support service that delivers responsive outreach to individuals following a suicide attempt or for those considered to be at significant risk of suicide. HOPE teams support individuals and their personal support networks (family, friends and other carers) for up to three months helping them to identify and build protective factors against suicide.

The Department of Health (the Department), is responsible for implementing the Royal Commission’s recommendations. In 2021, the Department provided funding to the four health services, one being Alfred Health, to co-design a new Child and Youth HOPE service.