Professor Myfanwy Maple

Professor Myfanwy Maple

Professor Myfanwy Maple of the University of New England was awarded $91,690 for their Innovation Research Grant project titled:

A mobile phone messaging intervention to support people bereaved by suicide.

The research will develop and evaluate an evidence-informed brief contact intervention comprising a series of text messages for people bereaved by suicide. The overall goal of this research is to develop a low cost, easy-to-implement, accessible support for people who experience the suicide of a loved one, to reduce the significant harms associated with exposure to suicide, including future suicide ideation, behaviour and death, filling a significant gap in current suicide prevention activities.

The research aims to:

• Test whether a low-intensity psychoeducational intervention reduces the risk of adverse outcomes following suicide exposure;
• Identify risk and protective factors associated with outcomes following exposure to suicide death.

In a statement, Professor Maple explains:

“We know that suicide bereavement is a particularly difficult life event to experience. We are really excited to be recipients of this SPRF funded innovation grant as it allows us to test an intervention that is easily accessible for people who have been bereaved by suicide to help support them following the death of someone close. We believe that this can avert some of the challenges people experience in the wake of suicide.”

For more information on the funding opportunities available through the Suicide Prevention Research Fund please visit this page.