Centrecare/One Life wins IPAA WA Business News Award - Innovation in the Not-For-Profit Sector

4 July 2014


2014 Western Australia Institute of Public Administration (IPAA WA) Achievement Awards

For the second year in a row, Centrecare/One Life has won a Western Australia Institute of Public Administration (IPAA WA) Achievement Award - Business News Award Innovation in the Not-for-Profit Sector. This is a fantastic achievement and congratulations go out to everybody involved.

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Centrecare General Manager - Catherine Spini (left) accepts the award
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Centrecare/One Life - Clive Elliott, Catherine Spini and Sandra Burns

Details of the award are below.

Organisational Categories

Business News Award
Innovation in the Not-for-Profit Sector

The winning organisation of this award will demonstrate the implementation and use of innovative practices and approaches to meet community and public service objectives.

WINNER: Centrecare Incorporated - One Life WA
In 2010 Centrecare Incorporated assumed the responsibility for the development and delivery of the community awareness initiatives for suicide prevention as set out by the Western Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy 2009 – 2013. The scope of implementing such a new, diverse and complex initiative required the ongoing development of strategies and procedures to deal with the ever changing nature and growth of this community development approach. Through the Agency stream of the WA Suicide Prevention Strategy, Centrecare staff was tasked with engaging workplaces that had never before been approached to promote mental health and wellbeing as part of their commitment to employees.

Judges comments:
Centrecare was commissioned to bring suicide prevention strategies into the workplace. This custom-designed program has been responsive to the particular concerns of the agencies in which it has been introduced and been globally innovative in its approach. By utilising workplaces as communities, engaging staff, and partnering with wide range of relevant stakeholders including existing OSH personnel, has contributed to decreasing the stigma of mental illness, and developed practical resources to help people ask 'R u OK?'