Abstract
Australia is well known for its national strategies for suicide prevention. Despite the rhetoric in policy documents, only a few programs have been developed which are firmly based in principles of Mental Health Promotion, as opposed to programs aiming to enhance early detection and clinical care. This paper will explore the 2 year development and national dissemination of a large scale suicide prevention program for the Australian Defence Force Cadets, a three-service force (Army, Air Force and Navy) for 25,000 young people aged 12 to 17 years. We will explore why we chose particular aspects of health promotion, how the program was conceptualised and created, and the complexity of working with 3 differing military services. Two of our 13 video micro-vignettes will be shown to prompt discussion about mental health promotion. The on-line national evaluation of 25,000 subjects will be discussed.