Organisations Offering Specific Suicide Bereavement Support
A number of services exist to guide and support the bereaved both through the initial period after losing someone by suicide and over the long term. Short-term care may involve providing information and referral to other support services such as crisis counselling as well as practical assistance in dealing with the police and coroner, making funeral arrangements and dealing with legal issues. Social and personal support, both individual and in groups with others who have shared a similar experience, is available over the weeks, months and years to help the bereaved come to terms with the loss of their loved one.
Details of organisations that offer these services are available below.
StandBy Response Service
StandBy provides a 24-hour coordinated response to address the needs of families, friends and associates who have been bereaved through suicide. StandBy responds to people immediately bereaved by suicide or those for whom an earlier suicide bereavement has since become a significant issue. StandBy also responds to school settings, work places, community groups and other types of multiple bereavement experiences. Contact details of StandBy services are provided below.
Services available in ACT
- Canberra: Donna Evans, Program Coordinator, on (02) 6243 3663 or 0432 385 197.
Click here to download a brochure.
Services available in QLD
- Brisbane: 07 3624 2400
- Sunshine and Cooloola Coasts: Jill Fisher, Program Coordinator, on (07) 5455 3322 or Police/Lifeline for after hours. Click here to download a brochure.
- Cairns: 0439 722 266.
Services available in TAS
- Southern Tasmania: Lifeline Hobart Contact: Connie Alomes Mobile 0400 183 490 North/NW Tasmania: CLS Contact: Wendy French Mobile 0439 556 660
Services available in WA
- Pilbara Region: Pilbara Health Network - Karratha Contact: Dr Shek Graham Mobile: 0438 611 999
- West Kimberley: KinWay StandBy Services - Broome Contact: Zoe Evans Mobile: 0458 889 937
- East Kimberley: KinWay StandBy Services - Kununurra Contact: Alisa Ranson Mobile 0488 910 012
Anglicare, Living Beyond Suicide
Services available in South Australia: Living Beyond Suicide offers survivor-sensitive support for families in the initial hours and days after suicide. Emotional and practical support is provided by appropriately skilled and trained volunteers to help families navigate service systems and access the assistance they need.
Support can be accessed by calling 1300 76 11 93.
A 24-hour Bereaved by Suicide telephone support line is also available on 8332 8240.
General information: The Anglicare Living Beyond Suicide website also contains a number of useful web links for suicide bereavement issues.
ARBOR, Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention, Western Australia
Services available in Western Australia: ARBOR is an outreach service which aims to help those newly bereaved to access the support, resources and assistance they need while reducing the isolation often felt at this time. ARBOR provides an outreach service for family and friends who lose a loved one by suicide.
Referrals can be made by calling ARBOR directly on (08) 9266 1029 or through the Coronial Counselling Service in WA.
General information: The ARBOR website also offers support packs and information including supporting children after suicide.
Lifeline, Suicide Bereavement, Grief and Loss Programs
Lifeline runs Suicide Bereavement, Grief & Loss Programs at various centres across Australia. These programs help those dealing with the suicide of someone they know to make sense of what has happened, deal with their grief and learn how to live with their loss. More information, including the Lifeline centres which run the program, can be found here.
General information: Lifeline provides telephone counselling services (see Crisis and Telephone Counselling section for details), as well as online resources including a downloadable booklet, The Survivors of Suicide, developed to support people who have lost a loved one to suicide. The booklet has been written by survivors for survivors, and provides guidance in coping with the suicide of a loved one. It addresses the emotions that may be felt after a suicide as well as information on how children deal with the death of a loved one by suicide.
Jesuit Social Services, Support After Suicide
Services available in Victoria: Support After Suicide is a program providing support to people bereaved by suicide including children and young people. They offer individual counselling and suicide bereavement support groups. The website offers information for the bereaved including advice on grief, understanding suicide, and guidelines for those caring for suicide bereaved children. Call (03) 9427 9899 (9AM to 5PM) for more information.
National Association of Loss and Grief Suicide Network
Services available in NSW: The NALAG Suicide Network is dedicated to promoting awareness, providing training, intervention and support to those affected by or seeking information on suicide. Call NALAG on (02) 6882 9222.
Salvation Army, Hope Line and the Bereaved By Suicide Support Program
General information: The Salvation Army run a National telephone support line for those bereaved by suicide called Hope Line. This service can be reached on 1300 467 354 or 1300 HOPE LINE and more information is available by clicking here.
Services available in Sydney, Gold Coast and Townsville: The Salvation Army also offers a Bereaved By Suicide Support Program. Here you can find information on the feelings you may experience in reaction to suicide, how to help a bereaved person and how to find out more about the support groups run by the organisation.
Suicide Call Back Service
National service: The Suicide Call Back Service provides crisis counselling to people at risk of suicide, carers for someone who is suicidal and those bereaved by suicide, 24 hours per day 7 days a week across Australia. People who are not linked in with current professional support can also access up to six sessions of ongoing counselling with the same counsellor at times scheduled to suit you. The website offers a wide range of information to help understand suicidal behaviour and to obtain support. Call the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 from anywhere in Australia for the cost of a local call (land line).
The Compassionate Friends (TCF)
General information: TCF is part of world-wide self-help organisation offering friendship and understanding to bereaved parents, siblings and grand-parents.
They offer friendship and understanding to families who are grieving the death of a child of any age, from any cause including suicide.
All bereaved family members are welcome.
Through this National site you will be able to connect with branches in all States of Australia and gain access to a network of people who can support you through your grief.
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Suicide Bereavement Support Groups
Suicide survivors go through the same grief process as other people do, except they have additional unique problems due in part to the stigma that accompanies death by suicide. Suicide Bereavement Support Groups allow survivors to come together to share their experiences and feelings with others who have gone through a similar experience.
There are two main types of group: open and closed. “Open” groups are peer support groups and you are welcome to attend any group meeting. “Closed” groups are generally professionally facilitated and are run according to a set structure over a number of weeks. To join a closed group you need to contact the group coordinator and find out when a place in a group is next available.
We suggest that you call before you attend a support group for the first time, to verify that the group is still meeting at the place and time listed. If you reach a recording when calling a support group, identify yourself as a suicide survivor to ensure a prompt reply.
A listing of Suicide Bereavement Support Groups can be found by clicking here.
Suicide Prevention Australia aims to provide a complete and up to date listing of regular suicide bereavement support groups operating across Australia. If you know of a group which is not currently listed or if group details have changed, please email info@suicidepreventionaust.org.
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Information packs available on the internet
Information packs designed specifically for those bereaved by suicide have been developed for each State. These information packs will help you understand the coronial process as well as providing information on grieving. They include sections on grieving for Indigenous people, teenagers and children. Further resources and support agencies which may help you through this difficult time are listed.
Please see below for a list of the information packs available for each state.
Australia Capital Territory
New South Wales
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia
Other useful information packs include the following:
Living Is For Everyone (LIFE) Fact Sheets
The LIFE Fact Sheets are a set of 24 plain-language, practical fact sheets for suicide and self-harm prevention. Fact sheet 19: Someone I know is bereaved by suicide provides information to assist in understanding and supporting someone bereaved by suicide.
NSW Health Department, Supporting Children After Suicide
This information pack was written with the help of children and parents bereaved by suicide. The information is intended as a guide to assist you in supporting your children by helping you to understand how children express grief, how to talk to them about suicide and suggestions for dealing with the funeral.
Reach Out!
Reach Out! is a web-based service that inspires young people (aged 16-25) to help themselves through tough times. This article helps address some of the issues that may come up when someone takes their own life. The website also offers fact sheets, forums, and other resources designed specifically for youth.
MindMatters
MindMatters, the national mental health initiative for secondary schools, offers resources to assist schools and teachers deal with suicide in the school community. Educating For Life: A Guide for School-based Responses to Preventing Self Harm and Suicide includes information on how to respond to death by suicide and provide support to both students and staff.
American Association of Suicidology, Survivors Division
The SOS (Survivors of Suicide) Handbook is designed to be a pocket-sized, quick-reference booklet for suicide survivors. Written by fellow survivor Jeffrey Jackson, it is brief, clear, and packed with essential information covering nearly every aspect of the survivor ordeal—from the emotional roller-coaster, to the elusive quest for “Why?”, to moving on.
GriefLink
The GriefLink website offers general information on grief including understanding what grief is, coping with grief and helping the bereaved. Information on grief after losing a loved one by suicide can be accessed by going to Topics.
Note that the links provided with in the site to support services are for South Australia only.
SANE Australia
SANE Australia provide a range of fact sheets and podcasts including Is someone close to you bereaved by suicide? and Has someone close to you died by suicide? SANE also offers a DVD exploring real-life experiences of families bereaved by suicide.
More information can be found under the Links section.
Western AustraliaWestern Australia
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Understanding the terminology used in this field
To help you identify resources which may be of help it is important to understand the terminology used in this field.
Definitions of key words are provided below*:
Suicide: The act of deliberately causing one’s own death. For suicide to be officially recognised as such, a coroner’s ruling of suicide must be made.
Bereaved by suicide: The term used to refer to those who have had significant others die through suicide (e.g. partners, family, friends, classmates and workmates). These people are also referred to as “survivors”.
Bereavement: Refers to the loss of a close relationship through death, grief is an individual’s emotional response to the death, and mourning is the social expression of that grief.
Postvention: The term given to activities and programs that are intended to assist those who have been bereaved by suicide to cope with what has happened. Suicide prevention and postvention are closely related in that postvention can also prevent further deaths.
*Definitions taken from The Salvation Army website
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