Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience disproportionally high rates of suicide and other health inequities. This report outlines the requirements of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander systems approach to suicide prevention and proposes a framework and implementation guidelines for such an approach.

The paper introduces the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) model and provides an overview of its key features, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander selfhood, SEWB domains, determinants of health, and expressions and experiences of SEWB. It presents the challenges in effective implementation and provides recommended best practice approaches.

Connections to community are an important source of resilience for Indigenous Australians. This paper discusses several protective factors resulting from community connection that work to prevent suicide by strengthening resilience and increasing social and emotional wellbeing.

This is the second guide intended to support Primary Health Networks (PHNs) working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to co-design and co-implement integrated approaches to suicide prevention.

This document is a companion guide to the Centre for Evidence and Implementation and Black Dog Institute’s LifeSpan Implementation Framework – Implementing Integrated Suicide Prevention. It is intended to support Primary Health Networks (PHNs) as they work to implement integrated approaches to suicide prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) communities.