And, hopefully, Kerrie Keepa's bravery will make a difference to hundreds of Australians who become suicidal each year.

More than 600 Queenslanders committed suicide last year - about  three times the state's road toll - but suicide stories are rarely told.

Suicide stories leading to a positive outcome, like Ms Keepa's, should be screamed.

The Brisbane aged-care worker lost her 21-year-old son Chris to suicide in September 2014.

He had been at Redland Hospital where he was released by well-meaning emergency department staff who did not recognise the "suicide signs" in front of them.

Ms Keepa could have become lost to despair.

Instead she fought for change to Queensland's mental health system, which she saw needed correction.

"Two weeks after he passed away, I started a Facebook page, which I thought would be for friends and family," she said at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital.

"And it went viral and seven million people saw it.

"I suppose at the time, it was my way of venting, of being frustrated."

Ms Keepa said she has never blamed anyone for her son's suicide.

The sheer number of hits on her Facebook page prompted a petition on change.org, which attracted more than 60,000 signatures calling for all hospital emergency department staff to be given specific, detailed training in recognising people at risk of suicide.

That brought Ms Keepa to the attention of Mental Health Council of Australia's Professor John Mendoza.

In May 2015, Professor Mendoza said her idea to tackle suicide was already being used successfully in Great Britain.

"Right now, one very simple and effective solution is to skill up all emergency department staff - not just those who have a designation of working with people presenting with suicidal behaviour - but all ER staff."

On May 1, 2015, Ms Keepa met with Queensland's Health Minister Cameron Dick and was given a role in shaping new anti-suicide policy.

By September 2015 Mr Dick announced the ED training scheme would begin as part of a major review of mental health in Queensland.

Since then, more than 150 clinical staff have received the suicide training. Those clinicians will "train the trainers" of the 5000 staff who work in emergency departments throughout Queensland.

The June 2016 Queensland budget allocated $9.6 million over three years for suicide prevention.

"This is the single biggest commitment ever made by a Queensland government specifically focused on suicide prevention," Mr Dick said.

On Friday, Ms Keepa said she was almost overwhelmed by the past 12 months and was very impressed by the commitment to the suicide training.

"This whole process from the beginning I never imagined would get us to where we are now," she said.

"The idea that this training would come to fruition and be rolled out across Queensland, the amount of people who are going to benefit from it, and the amount of lives that will be saved because of it, is fantastic.

"So all of you who are involved in this, thank you so much and hopefully we can continue on the path and save some lives."

The staff training - which Ms Keepa has observed, watched and helped implement - includes tutorials and then a four-hour simulation session with senior clinicians.

PA Hospital nurse Emily Cooper, who has completed the training, said it was very valuable.

"You do try to identify them early in the triage area, but this training gives us a much more structured approach, because it is a very sensitive area and we want to identify them early," she said.

"If nurses identify them the nurses consult senior clinicians and take them to a safe space to develop a plan together to make sure they get the best care possible."

Mr Dick said the training was about trained staff quietly and discreetly identifying people at risk.

"It is really about being able to intervene, to ask the questions that flag the necessity for intervention and then support that through our mental health system throughout Queensland."

All this from a mum who was determined some good should come from her son's death.

And to a health system that was prepared to listen and act.

As Mr Dick said on Friday: "All research indicates that a significant proportion of people who die by suicide had recent contact with a hospital or a primary health carer before their death.

"And staff in hospital emergency departments are particularly well-placed to recognise and intervene with suicidal people."

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