2019 was a busy year for YAM in Australia! We have continued to implement the program in schools as part of the LifeSpan Suicide prevention Trial, trained 17 new Instructors, and had the team from Mental Health in Mind visit for a weeklong site visit!
Since YAM was introduced to Australia in 2017 approximately 12,525 students have completed the entire program in New South Wales. This number will be increasing, as YAM is continuing to be delivered in schools across Murrumbidgee, Shoalhaven, Central Coast, Newcastle, Macarthur as well as the Illawarra and North Coast.
Evaluation of YAM in the Australian context is currently underway and show promising results. Preliminary results from the 3 month follow up survey indicate a reduction in suicidal thoughts, reduction in depressed mood, increase in knowledge about suicide and increase in help seeking intentions among youth who participated in YAM.
Black Dog Institute will be continuing to evaluate YAM in a fifth trial site the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) with delivery in schools starting in late February.
In November Camilla, Anna and Niklas came over to Australia for their second annual site visit. This was a jam-packed week, full of meetings and lots of laughs. During this week they trained 6 new YAM Trainers and spoke to students who participated in YAM in Wollongong. It was great to be able to connect with the team in person and learn more about YAM in Sweden!
Vladimir also took the 20-hour flight to Australia last year to supervise the new Trainers first Instructor Training course in December. We had 18 participants from all across the east Coast of Australia travel to Sydney to take part in the course- congratulations to our new Instructors, and to the new Trainers for successfully completing their first course!
We’re looking forward to another successful year of YAM in Australia starting with some of the Trainer team travelling interstate for our next Instructor training course in the ACT. We’ll be sending another update on this soon!
Post by Liv de Pomeroy: YAM Trainer and Instructor and YAM Project Manager in Australia