Peer Led Support groups are an invaluable resource for people bereaved by suicide to connect and heal. Utilising Lived Experience to facilitate these groups is not a new idea, but the impact is significant.
The experience of suicide bereavement is complex and isolating. Guilt, anger, stigma, shame, disconnection, shock, depression and relief are just some of the emotions that are experienced by people impacted by a suicide death. These emotions, which are difficult to share, can be even more difficult for people to hear.
Bereaved people are sometimes encouraged to open up and talk and try to make sense of what is a completely nonsensical situation, but it can be difficult to believe that anyone could possibly relate to the unique and complex experience of suicide bereavement unless they have also lived it. This is the value of the Lived Experience facilitators in a Suicide Bereavement Support Group – they get it.
In the Eastern Region of Melbourne we run one such group. There is no cost to the participants. We meet once a month for 2 hours – which never feels long enough – and it is facilitated by two Lived Experience Practitioners, both bereaved by suicide.
Within my work I have witnessed how Lived Experience facilitators run the group with the honesty of their own experiences, whilst still providing hope for those who attend. The connections formed through the shared experience within this group are truly lifesaving, and that in itself is suicide postvention AND suicide prevention. The collective voices of the participants and the facilitators are united to foster the strength and courage to face each day in a world we never imagined for ourselves.
Within my presentation I will expand on the impact of lived experience facilitation – how it creates the shared experience that allows true open and honest connection without judgement or question. I will discuss how connection can alleviate the isolation – the participants are no longer alone in their grief, and instead share a unity of experience.
We know we don’t have all the answers, but we do know how to validate and normalise this complex and isolating experience. We learn from each other. We support each other. We understand each other. Together. Lived Experience needs to be a key component of suicide bereavement groups for maximum benefit to all those who attend, to create true and meaningful connection and hope.