Myfanwy Maple

University of New England (Australia) | UNE · School of Health

Suicide exposure research has relied on samples of treatment-seeking kin, resulting in an attachment-based model centering bereavement as the most significant form of impact and obscuring other forms of significant and life-altering impact. From a community-based sample (N = 3010) exposed to suicide, we examine a subset (n = 104) with perceived hig...

The increasing number of suicides among military populations cannot be fully accounted for by conventional risk factors like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As a result, researchers and theorists propose that delving into the concept of Moral Injury could offer a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of suicide. Moral Injury is...

Objective: The goal of this scoping review is to map the various methods used to understand the experiences and outcomes of individuals receiving bereavement support after a sudden, traumatic death. Furthermore, the review aims to determine whether and how these outcome and experience measurements are utilised to inform service delivery. Introduc...

Objective. Mental ill-health is a common occurrence globally and represents a significant burden of disease. In Australia, the development and improvement of programs that connect individuals earlier in their mental ill-health journey is a national health priority. However, there are current informational gaps on community-based initiatives and the...

The project aims to develop understanding of the appropriate and sensitive use of outcome measures, and the subsequent meaningful use of outcome data, within the suicide postvention sector. The findings from the research will inform the suicide postvention sector broadly on appropriate approaches to understanding the outcomes of people who access s...

Background Suicide is more prevalent among disadvantaged, discriminated, and marginalised people with the majority of global suicide deaths occurring in the low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). This can be attributed to sociocultural contexts and exacerbated by access to limited resources and services that can assist with early identification,...

Invitation to participate in research project: Exploring intervention experiences after parental loss to suicide in childhood This research is focused on people with experience of parental loss to suicide during their childhood, and who are currently aged 18-30 years

For many, suicide bereavement is challenging. Postvention responses are few and evidence to inform them is lacking. Eighteen postvention experts completed an online survey regarding the key issues, challenges, and supports available to people bereaved by suicide. Participants were asked to identify the issues, then rank them in terms of importance...

Plain english summary Organisations and researchers need to collaborate to produce new knowledge of health interventions. The literature identifies that there is a substantial evidence gap between producing knowledge and improving health outcomes. Here we reflect, via a case study methodology, on ways to co-create new knowledge by following a four-...

Background In Australia, the collaborative involvement of stakeholders, especially those with lived experience in mental health and suicide prevention, has become important to government policy and practice at Federal and State levels. However, little is known about how governments translate this intention into frameworks of co-creation for policy,...

There is no regular mandated increase in minimum wages for workers employed in the Bangladesh ready-made garment (RMG) industry. Workers in the past have relied on optional bonuses added to their monthly incomes to supplement their wages. However, a new minimum wage implemented in January 2019 in the Bangladesh RMG sector increased wages for many w...

Veterans who have been exposed to suicide or traumatic death of a colleague experience heightened suicide risk, particularly where they report a close relationship to the deceased. There is a dearth of qualitative studies investigating the experience of loss of a military colleague to inform responses that veterans perceive as helpful. This study a...

Social workers bring complementary skills and knowledge to support existing school staff, including wellbeing teams, counsellors, and teachers. Social work students undertaking a placement in a school have the opportunity to experience a variety of roles in which to grow further and develop their social work skills, group work being one valuable pa...

Comprehensive phases and principles in establishing a sustainable placement in an NSW school site. The following handbook is designed to establish social work field education placements in an NSW school setting. It is intended to provide information and guidance for university staff and school staff, as well as social work supervisors who will be s...

Brief contact interventions are an efficient and cost-effective way of providing support to individuals. Whether they are an effective bereavement intervention is not clear. This systematic review included articles from 2014 to 2021.711 studies were identified, with 15 meeting inclusion criteria. The brief contact interventions included information...

Introduction A brief screener assessing experience of exposure to suicide for use in therapeutic settings is warranted. To examine the concurrent validity of such a screening tool, labeled as the Suicide Exposure Experience Screener (SEES), the associations of the two SEES items: (i) reported closeness with the person who died by suicide and (ii) p...

Objectives: There has been debate regarding the working conditions for employees of the Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG) industry since the 1980s. Little is known how the existing working conditions of the Bangladesh RMG sector impact workers’ health and overall wellbeing, which remains the key aim of this study. Methods: The study adopted a qual...

Help seekers regularly present to Emergency Departments (EDs) when in suicidal crisis for intervention to ensure their immediate safety, which may assist in reducing future attempts. The emergency health workforce have unique insights that can inform suicide prevention efforts during this critical junction in an individual's experience with suicide...

Psychoeducational groups have been used to address many health needs. Yet, there are few such options available for people who have attempted suicide. This study presents preliminary findings from an open trial of Eclipse, an 8-week closed, psych-oeducational group for people who have attempted suicide. It examined the effectiveness of the Eclipse...

Background Governments and third-sector organizations (TSOs) require support to reduce suicide mortality through funding of suicide prevention services and innovative research. One way is for researchers to engage individuals and services in multisectoral collaborations, to collaboratively design, develop and test suicide prevention services and pr...

This Handbook is designed to support social work students who are undertaking a placement in a school setting, as well as provide information and guidance for supervisors who will be supporting them. Social workers have an extensive history of working in schools across the world in order to provide support to school students and families in address...

The Social Work in School (SWiS) program is well established in the Hunter New England Region of NSW. Numerous wellbeing strategies are in place in schools however it appears the complexity and numbers of students requiring support have outgrown these current systems. Social workers could work across the whole school to address some of these needs,...

Background: Family members often provide informal care following a suicide attempt. Carers may be vulnerable to caregiver burden. Yet, little is known about what contributes to this. Aims: To determine the predictors of caregiver burden in those carers who support people who have attempted suicide. Method: An online survey of 435 participants asses...

For Australians experiencing a suicide crisis, the emergency department (ED) is the recommended point of contact for intervention and to ensure personal safety. However, negative ED experiences can deter individuals from returning, thus impacting future suicide risk. In order to improve the ED environment for individuals in suicidal crisis, an in-d...

The Continuum of Survivorship proposes a way in which individuals may experience the suicide death of someone known to them along a continuum from being exposed to the death through to long-term bereavement. The present study provides a first empirical testing of the proposed model in an Australian community sample exposed to suicide. Using a Laten...

The Rana Plaza building collapse occurred on 24 April 2013 in Savar, near the capital city of Bangladesh, killing more than 1130 garment workers and injured about 2500, mostly females. Those who survived face ongoing challenges, including socio-cultural constraints, economic hardship, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), depression, and critical...

Despite high rates of critical incidents (CIs) in working class occupations, there is a significant gap in our understanding of responses to these events. In this study, we aimed to inform a response training module by synthesising the key elements of pre-, during- and post-incident responses to CIs and suicide in the workplace. A rapid review iden...

Suicide prevention strategies internationally appear to be falling short of making a meaningful impact on global suicide deaths. Increasing the rates of general community participation in suicide research may improve knowledge generalisability as it relates to suicidal behaviour and leads to new suicide prevention approaches. This study aims to exp...

It is well established that bushfires and other natural disasters have long term-effects on the mental health of affected individuals and communities (Black Dog Institute, 2020). These effects can last for years as demonstrated following the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria, Australia: one fifth (21.9%) of the highest impacted communities repo...

Suicide exposure is associated with an increased risk for suicide. There is limited research on the mechanisms that increase this risk. This study aims to: (1) compare suicide exposure and associated variables in veteran, active duty, and civilian participants, (2) examine the extent to which fearlessness about death and suicide risk factors differ...

There is currently limited information about the impact and experiences of asuicide attempt on the well-being of a perso n providing care before, during, or after the attempt.Scant evidence available suggests that providing care has a profound impact on the supportperson or carers’ own physical and psychological health; they may experience adverse...

Background: Exposure to parental death in childhood has been associated with increased suicide risk among offspring, although few studies have examined protective factors that reduce suicide risk in this cohort. This systematic literature review aimed to synthesise primary studies on the protective factors that reduce suicidality following childhoo...

Moral injury is the current term describing the breaching or violation of one's moral code and has gained international research attention due to suicide linkages in military populations (Jamieson et al., Invisible wounds and suicide: Moral injury and veteran mental health. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 29, 105-109, 2020). Moral i...

Workplace exposure to suicide attempts and deaths has been widely recognized as an occupational hazard for mental health and social care workers, including mental health nurses. Research consistently demonstrates the adverse impact on professionals. This paper explores the results of an online survey examining suicide exposure and impact. Of the 30...

Introduction For individuals presenting to the emergency department (ED) for a suicide attempt, the period after discharge from hospital is marked by heightened vulnerability for further suicide attempts. Effective care following a suicidal crisis has the potential to significantly decrease this risk. The current study aims to examine the impact of...

In recent years, an increasing number of Bangladeshi men have been working overseas. Whilst working abroad, some migrants engage in unprotected sexual activities, making them vulnerable to different kinds of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Upon retur...

This paper describes the potential impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the readymade garment (RMG) workers of Bangladesh. It articulates the RMG workers' existing vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic based on currently available evidence and personal conversations/communications with RMG workers. COVID-19 has already...

People with a lived experience of suicide are commonly included within suicide prevention research. This includes participation in conferences, policy development, research and other activities. Yet little is known about the impact on the person in the long term of regularly sharing one's experience to different audiences and, in some cases, to a s...

A report prepared for the National Suicide Prevention Advisor and National Suicide Prevention Taskforce

Background Exposure to parental death in childhood has been strongly associated with offspring suicide although few studies have applied theoretical models to conceptualise this relationship. Methods Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – Scoping Reviews guidelines, we conducted a scoping review of primary s...

2019 marks the twentieth anniversary of the 1999 landmark publication Ambiguous loss: learning to live with unresolved grief by Emeritus Professor Pauline Boss. The book, and its exploration of uncertainty, has invited ambiguous loss into the grief counselling space, as a way to provide specialised care for families and friends of missing people. T...

Co-creation of new knowledge has the potential to speed up the discovery and application of new knowledge into practice. However, the progress of co-creation is hindered by a lack of definitional clarity and inconsistent use of terminology. The aim of this paper is to propose a new standardised definition of co-creation of new knowledge for health...

Invisible wounds and suicide: Moral injury and veteran mental health. Editorial piece providing an overview of moral injury with an Australian focus where possible.

(1) Background: First-hand accounts of lived experience of suicide remain rare in the research literature. Increasing interest in the lived experience of suicide is resulting in more opportunities for people to participate in research based on their personal experience. How individuals choose to participate in research, and their experience of doin...

Background: There is limited research investigating the risks for young friends exposed to the suicide of peers. Aims: This study aimed to better understand the impact of suicide bereavement on rural young people. Method: Participants in this a mixed-method study were 18 young people who had been exposed to a friend's suicide and who resided in rur...

Background: A research protocol is presented for the evaluation of the Eclipse group, an 8-week closed group for people who have previously attempted suicide, which aims to reduce future suicide and increase resilience and support identification and help seeking.

Those who attempt suicide have often been overlooked in the suicide prevention literature. Where stories of lived experience have been included, it is often from the perspectives of healthcare professionals who treat the physical and/or psychological impacts following an attempt, rather than firsthand accounts. Yet, the most intimate insights of su...

Aim: To examine the relationships of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) with suicidal thoughts and behaviour among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Methods: Global School-based Student Health Survey data from 206,357 students (14.6±1.18 years; 51% female) in 52 LMICs were used. Students reported on suicid...

With funding from both the Grenet Merrin and Ian Potter Foundations, and support from academics based at the University of New England, SANE Australia is pleased to present its findings in the first phase of the Better Support project. This two-phased project explores the needs of families and friends supporting those who have attempted suicide.

Suicide remains an important public health issue across the globe. Until recently the medically dominated field of suicide prevention has neglected first-hand accounts of suicidal thoughts and behaviors from those who have survived prior suicide attempts. This qualitative research provides insight into the experience of suicide attempt, highlightin...

Background: Exposure to the suicide death of another may lead to distress and increase the risk of suicide in those connected to the deceased. Yet, the extent of this exposure across the population is ill-defined. This paper utilises representative data to quantify the extent of exposure to suicide in the Australian community and the reported effe...

This study aims to identify the ongoing physical and psychological health vulnerabilities of the readymade garment (RMG) factory workers involved in the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013, along with their experiences within the current socioeconomic and political contexts of Bangladesh. Seventeen Rana Plaza survivors participated in unstructured...

Background: Exposure to parental death in childhood has been associated with offspring suicide risk, although the strength of this association is unclear. The primary aim of this systematic review was to synthesise primary studies on the relationship between childhood exposure to external cause parental death, including suicide, and subsequent sui...

This article presents qualitative data to explore the experience of farming family members faced with accidental or suicide death and understand how this is experienced within the farming context. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 members of Australian farming families bereaved by suicide or accidental death. Qualitative d...

Background: Past research has robustly supported differences in prevalence and severity of mental health disorders between males and females in general. Less is known in regards to how suicide exposure and related factors may be associated with these mental health outcomes in men and women. This study seeks to explore similarities and differences b...

Children and young people in rural Australia experience disadvantage compared with metropolitan counterparts, with low educational attainment and disengagement from schooling being linked to poorer health outcomes. Schools are an existing contact point between individuals and health services. However, these health services are often overburdened an...

Background: Suicide is a major global health challenge and a leading cause of death among adolescents, but research related to suicide has concentrated on high-income countries. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of suicidal ideation, suicide planning, and suicide attempts in adolescents from 59 low-income and middle-income countries. Methods:...

Exposure to suicide and the associated impacts for those left behind can be long lasting and traumatic. Literature has predominantly examined the experience of suicide and impact from the perspective of those closest to the deceased—with studies primarily focused on kin relationships. Appropriate and timely support delivered by skilled professional...

The impact of exposure to suicide death or attempt remains ill-understood. This article aims to investigate this impact among 3010 community residing Australian adults. An online survey investigated the burden of exposure to suicide, psychological distress, and predictors of distress. The following variables were most significant in predicting dist...

Background There is a paucity of literature that addresses the health vulnerabilities of readymade garment (RMG) workers in South and Southeast Asian regions. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to identify the distinctive types of health vulnerabilities along with the causes and consequences of these vulnerabilities of the RMG workers...

Suicide prevention remains a priority in Australia and internationally. The rate of suicide in Australia is at a 10-year high with 3128 people dying by intentional self-harm in 2017, a preliminary death rate of 12.6 per 100,000. This represents approximately 8.6 deaths per day. Suicide is particularly high among certain groups, notably young people...

Introduction: Rural health workforce shortages are a global phenomenon. Countries like Australia, with industrialised economies, large land masses and broadly dispersed populations, face unique rural health challenges in providing adequate services and addressing workforce shortages. This article focuses on retention of early-career nursing and all...

Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) is an uncommon but potentially severe illness that disproportionally affects babies, children, and adolescents and can cause significant disability. Such outcomes have devastating impact on families and caregivers. This study aimed to identify the current level of social work intervention in cases of IMD, identi...

The Bangladeshi readymade garment (RMG) sector is an important feature of the country's economic development, as it is the highest contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh. This industry initiated a revolution in the employment sector particularly through involving women in the workplace, in a culture where employment of women rema...