THE DUBBO Aboriginal Lands Council Meeting Room was the venue for a collaborative venture that aims to prevent and help young indigenous students cope with suicide.
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About 50 people from a variety of community groups in Dubbo attended the discussion, including many Aboriginal elders.
Representatives from Dubbo public schools were also in attendance.
Wambool Aboriginal Suicide Team spokesperson and educator Allan Hall said the aim of the day was to get community groups and schools talking about suicide and learning culturally-sensitive strategies to deal with the fallout if it occurred, but primarily to prevent it in the first place.
Mr Hall said there was still a stigma attached to suicide that people struggled to discuss.
"We want to be able to address the prevention side of things instead of having to deal with a suicide after it's occurred," he said.
"Suicide does happen and we want to let people know there are places you can go."
Supporting youth in schools after a suicide had occurred was also an area that needed to be fine-tuned.
"In the last couple of years we've had a couple of suicides and we've come in with the councillors and NALAG and many different groups to learn how to support these kids," he said.
"We need to let people know that suicide is out there, it's prevalent and it's a bad thing we want to be able to stop."
Mr Hall said having all the groups work together was an attempt to put "all the jigsaw pieces together."
He thought everyone who was working individually with these issues had done a good job, but collectively the groups agreed things could be improved.
"If we all work together we will be linking together and supporting each other for a common cause," he said.
lisa.minner@ruralpress.com
