Supporting each other after suicide
A toolkit for LGBTIQA+ friends, community groups, and organisations
This resource was created by authors, contributors, and collaborators living and working on the traditional lands of many Nations across the continent, each with unique local histories, knowledge, and cultures. We acknowledge that both locally and nationally, Switchboard Victoria’s work takes place on stolen lands under ongoing colonial occupation. We pay our deepest respects to all Elders past and present and extend those respects to all Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples across this country we know as Australia. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded, and this always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples are incredibly diverse, with historic and continuing connections to culture, land, and waters. We honour the strength and resistance of all Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples who identify with LGBTIQA+SB communities, particularly Brotherboys and Sistergirls. We recognise that homophobia and transphobia have been forcibly imposed on this continent through colonial invasion and occupation. We also understand suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as one of the many ongoing impacts of this colonial invasion and occupation. We recognise and deeply value the leadership and wisdom of First Nations people as vital to suicide prevention work.
This toolkit contains knowledge and ideas brought together from the experiences of many LGBTIQA+ people and allies - community members, support workers, service delivery providers, lived experience experts and more - who have experienced suicide loss.
In creating this toolkit, we hope to honour the legacies of the many LGBTIQA+ communities who have taken care of each other, learned from one another, and created spaces for LGBTIQA+ experiences of grief and loss. We are deeply grateful to this community history of care, knowledge and resistance.
Who is this toolkit for?
We hope that anyone who has experienced a suicide loss could pick up this toolkit and find something useful. Whether you are a healthcare provider looking for more information about LGBTIQA+ suicide bereavement, a community group seeking practical ideas about facilitating community grief, a chosen family navigating the loss of a family member, or anyone else, we hope you might find something here that can support you.
Why is this toolkit needed?
LGBTIQA+ communities have unique experiences around suicide loss and grief. These unique experiences mean that we have specific needs around suicide bereavement support. Understanding the unique suicide loss and grief experiences of LGBTIQA+ communities is the first step towards effective community grief facilitation. Below, we’ll look more closely at how suicide loss and grief can look for LGBTIQA+ communities.
Explore the Toolkit
Section 1 - Understanding LGBTIQA+ suicide bereavement: Getting to know the landscape
An introduction to the toolkit. In this section, we’ll look at the landscape of LGBTIQA+ suicide bereavement, the history and context of this resource, terms and definitions, and how we understand LGBTIQA+ grief experiences.
Section 2 - Facilitating LGBTIQA+ community grief: Preparing the ground
This section explores what makes it possible for us to facilitate LGBTIQA+ community grief. We look at key ideas, actions and possibilities that guide our work, activities or ‘touchstones’ that we come back to when facilitating LGBTIQA+ community grief, and how to build your own community grief facilitation team.
Section 3 - Talking about LGBTIQA+ suicide bereavement: Planting seeds
This section provides a guide to deciding what information to share about a suicide loss, who to share it with, and how to share it. There are links to templates throughout the section that you may wish to use when making decisions as a community grief facilitation team.
Section 4 - Community Grief Facilitation Action Map
This section provides you with a practical, step-by-step action map for facilitating grief as a team, from the first 24 hours through to longer term.
We invite you to treat this toolkit like a conversation with us, and to bring your own knowledge, ideas, and personal experience as you navigate this loss. We hope that this guide might act as an accessible, informative, and adaptable companion to you and your community in your own grief.
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Switchboard Victoria’s Suicide Prevention program was established in 2019. Our peer-driven program includes Australia’s first LGBTIQA+ suicide bereavement service, a national LGBTIQA+ Lived Experience Network, a peer support program, and an online LGBTIQA+ suicide prevention resource hub (CHARLEE). Our program work has extended to research into LGBTIQA+SB experiences of suicidal distress, and Changing the Landscape, a national campaign bringing the voices of LGBTIQA+ community members to the suicide prevention sector to create systems change. This work led us to develop Supporting each other after suicide: A toolkit for LGBTIQA+ friends, community groups, and organisations, which represents the next step in our journey of lived experience advocacy in suicide prevention and postvention.
This toolkit was made possible by the support from many community members and allies. We wish to thank the following people:
Our deep gratitude to those who have generously contributed to this resource by sharing your expertise, experiences, and stories with us. This toolkit only exists because of your lived experience wisdom, and your contributions have ensured that LGBTIQA+ lived experience voices are centred throughout.
Thank you to the LGBTIQA+ community members, leaders, and loved ones who provided heartfelt words about the need for better suicide prevention care for our communities at the coronial inquest into the deaths of transgender individuals in 2023. We carry what you shared, and hope that what we have created provides a guide for those who are journeying through their grief.
Thank you to Department of Families, Fairness and Housing in acknowledging the need for our communities to be better resourced whilst navigating the experiences of suicide loss. We are grateful to have received support from the Victorian Government to ensure this vital resource can be shared.
Thank you to the people and organisations who supported our work, and whose contributions informed our thinking and understandings.
Special thanks to:
Jesuit Social Services
Minus 18
Live4life
Switchboard’s Suicide Bereavement Program
Jacq Moon Studio
Those who contributed to the proofreading and editing.
