Communicating change
It is important to communicate the change your improvement project will bring about by engaging relevant stakeholders and creating awareness through engagement activities.
A Stakeholder Engagement Plan is a way to communicate with project stakeholders (consumers, carers, families and clinicians/non-clinical staff on the unit/ team, hospital executives etc) to achieve their support for your Suicide Prevention improvement project. It specifies the frequency and type of communications and communication activities that will help communicate, build and maintain stakeholder engagement with your improvement project at all levels.
Use the Stakeholder Engagement Plan – Guide and Template for your Suicide Prevention improvement project.
Each of your stakeholder groups will have unique characteristics, needs and motivations and will require different engagement activities to communicate with them effectively.
Some ideas include:
- Include suicide prevention improvement project updates in Safety Huddles
- Creating a Quality Learning Board on the units/ service or handing out educational factsheets, information and/or data about the improvement project
- Learning linked to Morbidity and Mortality meetings (Revised CEC Morbidity and Mortality Meeting Guideline), and Incident Management/Safety and Quality/Serious Adverse Event Review Committees. Incidents and adverse events analysis and review may suggest important issues for quality or system improvement. System and quality improvement work and outcome data should then be reported back to these committees
- Setting a standing agenda item or PowerPoint presentation at regular safety and quality/ clinical council/ clinical governance meetings
- Using local mental health nursing, psychiatry/ medical officers, pharmacy and Suicide Prevention coordinators/ champions to advocate for improvement and support clinicians in the units and teams
- Holding a project launch, workshop or integrating engagement activities into existing local events e.g. mental health forums, grand rounds
- Utilising service wide communication channels such as eNewsletters, the intranet etc
- Using Nursing Handover time or staff meetings to provide short, regular updates
- Awareness campaigns to coincide with:
- RUOK? Day – Second Thursday in September every year
- World Suicide Prevention Day – 10 September every year
- World Mental Health Day – 10 October every year
- Mental Health Week / National Carer's Week
- World Patient Safety Day - 17 September every year
- Patient Safety Awareness Week (Mid-March every year).
- A calendar of mental health and wellbeing events and days is available on Australian Government National Mental Health Commission
- Creating posters, lanyards and computer screensavers
- Conducting a quiz, creating social media posts or sending email communications
- Distributing information to general practitioners or Visiting Medical Officers (in rural and regional areas).