Sarah McDowell
Sarah McDowell is a senior clinical practitioner specialising in acute assessment, risk assessment, and intervention for children, young people, and their families in crisis. She has specialised in child and adolescent mental health for close to two decades, predominantly in acute emergency settings.
Sarah was the Senior Suicide Prevention Clinician for the Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) on the Gold Coast, QLD, supporting the implementation of the Suicide Prevention Pathway.
She brings a passion for lived experience and is a strong advocate for working in collaboration with family and carer representation groups at each point of the Suicide Prevention Journey.
With a warm and engaging approach, Sarah strives to promote meaningful , therapeutic interventions for people and their carers/families experiencing a suicide crisis.
What Clients Say
Sarah has provided our Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in South Australia with exemplary consultancy, including the development and implementation of customised, culturally informed clinical training in suicide prevention, clinical supervision support, and expert guidance. She has also supported the embedding of the Towards Zero Suicide Framework across all levels of our service. Sarah’s work has consistently received positive feedback from our workforce, largely due to her clinical experience, professionalism, and communication style, which are highly suited to the sensitive and complex nature of suicide prevention frameworks. Her work empowers our mental health workforce and supports our consumers and carers. Sarah comes highly recommended, and we will continue to value and utilise her services.
Ginny Slattery (She/Her)
Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)I drew on Sarah’s professional experience and expertise to enhance ZSIA’s online training modules for Lethal Means Safety Conversations. With the addition of practical scenarios, which Sarah provided, healthcare staff now have the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained for an improved learning experience.
Sue Murray
Zero Suicide Institute of AustralasiaSarah was instrumental in helping us develop our training package and train the trainers for our suicide prevention pathway. This required creative thinking and problem-solving. Specifically, Sarah assisted us with: Refining our SPP to maintain fidelity. Developing a self-sustaining training model within our organization. Co-developing the training program. Facilitating and modelling the training sessions. Providing supervision and mentoring for clinicians and trainers. Her expertise and experience were invaluable in co-designing the training to meet our specific needs as a rural and remote mental health service.
Shaun Dennis
Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health NetworkPublications
The implementation of a zero-suicide framework in a child and youth mental health service in Australia:
processes and learnings (Bandjerporn et al 2024)
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Descriptive analysis of 1,048 presentations in the first five years of a zero-suicide framework in a child and youth mental health service in Australia (Bandjerporn et al 2024)
Buy NowA lived experience co-designed study protocol for a randomised control trial: the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program (ASSIP) or Brief Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as additional interventions after a suicide attempt compared to a standard Suicide Prevention Pathway (SPP) (Stapelburg et al 2021)
Buy NowConferences
- Zero Suicide Forum – Q1 Gold Coast 2021
- Zero Suicide Forum – Q1 Gold Coast 2022
- Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Conference 2024:
Christchurch, New Zealand
Expertise & Qualifications
Masters, Child and
Adolescent Mental Health
New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry
Bachelor of
Nursing Studies
Australian Catholic University
Post Graduate, Child and
Adolescent Mental Health Nursing
University of Technology Sydney