From the policy developments outlined above, it is evident that suicide prevention in Australia is receiving increasing levels of attention by governments. The key messages relating to suicide prevention across the key Australian Government documents and the state/territory policies are largely consistent, albeit with different emphases on particular target groups (eg, rural men) or different approaches (eg, development of community action plans) depending on local factors. For the most part, jurisdictional policies are consistent with the themes outlined in the LIFE Framework. While there is a strong focus on the link between mental illness and suicide within more recent policy documents such as the Report Card and the Roadmap, there is also growing recognition of the broader social and economic factors that are implicated in suicide, and of the need for whole-of-government and whole-of-community responses.
Given that the NSPP and TATS are one component within what can be described as a somewhat crowded policy environment (see Chapter 11), the extent to which suicide-related outcomes (in particular, rates of self-harm and suicide) can be directly attributed to the NSPP/TATS specifically is limited.