Community members across Broken Hill will have the opportunity to learn new skills to support people bereaved and impacted by suicide in a series of free and interactive workshops next week, run by Standby Support After Suicide and Social Futures at South Community Centre.
Across two days – Tuesday, February 7 and Thursday, February 9 – Australia’s leading post-suicide support service and the regional-based community services provider will offer three workshops, each targeting different areas of ideas and actions people can take in the wake of being affected by suicide.
The Federal Government on Thursday announced an investment of over $203 million into student wellbeing, with Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Emma McBride, saying “support is key to promoting positive mental health and that young people face their own unique challenges”.
Western NSW Standby Coordinator, Mandi Smart, said it was important to attend regional centres and give help and advice.
“Anybody, anywhere, can be impacted or bereaved by a suicide and sadly, up to 400,000 Australians every year are impacted by losing somebody to suicide that they love and they care about. So it’s really important the people that are aware of post-vention support and the services out there,” Ms Smart told us.
“We know that there are a lot of people Australia-wide that are impacted but we also know there are areas that don’t get the same access to services as the more built-up metropolitan areas.”
SAD TOLL
New South Wales had the highest number of deaths via suicide in 2021 (880) according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and across 2017-2021, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported 27 deaths via suicide in Broken Hill and the Far West.
“It’s really important at Standby, and particularly Standby Western NSW, to make sure that we get out to every community and we become known in the communities, become trusted by the communities, that they become aware that this support is there and it is available to them, and it is available face-to-face for them, and that the workshops are available and that they are as entitled to have these opportunities as everybody else to participate.”
Ms Smart said the aim of the workshops were to help educate on what to do and how best to support someone who had been impacted or bereaved by suicide.
The first workshop (on Tuesday 9.30am to 12.30pm), What Do I Say? What Do I Do? highlights the importance of language and active listening, as well as identifying supports around the person to help them cope with grief and loss.
The second workshop (Tuesday 1.30pm to 4.30pm) Supporting Children and Young People Impacted by Suicide, looks at the needs of young people impacted by suicide, targeted towards people who work with youth and children.
“[It] focuses on children and young people in different developmental stages and also looks at the protective factors we can put in around them, how children and young people greave and process things differently to adults and how we can support them to do that in a really safe environment.”
The final workshop (Thursday, February 9, 9.30am-1.30pm) Pathways to Care is for first responders, frontline workers, health workers, service providers, community organisations and suicide prevention groups, looking at planning a community-wide response to suicide.
“The more stakeholders and people from different areas we get together, the more comprehensive the planning can be so that in the unfortunate occurrence of a suicide, the community has a plan about how they’re going to support everybody impacted,” Ms Smart said.
Workshop attendees must be aged 18 years or older. Each workshop is capped at 30 and places can be reserved via Eventbrite via https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/standby-support-after-suicide-western-nsw-59195940143. Registrations close this Monday, February 6.
To organise a face-to-face support session or refer someone while Standby is in town, contact Ms Smart on 1300 727 247.
If you are in need of immediate support, call Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast on 13 11 14.
