This week, renowned US Suicidologist, Dr Pete Gutierrez lands in Sydney joining the local LivingWorks team for a series of meetings and presentations on suicide prevention amongst youth, veterans and Indigenous communities.

LivingWorks Australia CEO Shayne Connell said, “We know suicide is a critical issue globally amongst youth, Indigenous and veteran communities, and to have Dr Gutierrez in-person during LivingWorks’ 40th year of leading suicide intervention training to meet with Australian-based experts is very welcome”.

This week Dr Gutierrez will lead a presentation to Defence and veteran staff at the Department of Veteran Affairs in Canberra to speak about his renowned suicide prevention work with the US Military and moving into early intervention within defence and military worldwide.

Dr Gutierrez is the Executive Vice President of Innovation for LivingWorks, the Professor of Psychology at Florida State University and former co-Director of the Military Suicide Research Consortium.

“I’m very much looking forward to the week ahead; research and evidence-based suicide prevention practice is a critical part of knowledge translation to ensure collectively we have the strongest impact in helping to keep people safe from suicide,” Dr Gutierrez said.

Dr Gutierrez will join meetings with Professor Jo Robinson and Orygen, Australia’s centre for excellence in youth mental health, as part of the million-dollar LivingWorks/Orygen research partnership; the largest of its kind to evaluate LivingWorks suicide intervention skills training for NSW teachers, schools, parents, sports & community leaders. Read more about the project here.

Continuing their partnership and focus on the priority of suicide prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Dr Gutierrez and Professor Maree Toombs will meet to discuss the growth of Indigenous co-designed and led suicide intervention training programs, LivingWorks I-ASIST and safeYARN.

To learn more about LivingWorks suicide intervention training, including the world’s gold standard, 2-day suicide first aid training LivingWorks ASIST, visit www.livingworks.net/asist.