S E Q U O I A C L U B

May/June 2014 1

Website: www.sosbsa.org.au Email: secretary@sosbsa.org.au

Facebook: SOSBSA Mail: P.O. Box 334

Springwood Qld 4127

On the weekend of the 23rd March 2014 an article was published in the Weekend Australian Magazine called “The Ripple Effect” written by Trent Dalton.

This article talks about the aftermath of suicide and specifically focusses in on suicide as a ‘contagion’ amongst young people. Whether you agree or not the statistics certainly support that this really is happening amongst our young people. For those of you whose loved one wasn’t part of the ‘contagion’ issue, please understand Trent isn’t saying that all suicides result from contagion – he’s just highlighting this specific issue. Trent also looks generally at the pain of those left behind. I guess it’s also important, and Trent also points this out – that when someone loses a loved one to suicide they then become part of the ‘at-risk’ group. This is why we do what we do, and why so many people work with survivors of suicide. We provide suicide prevention services through postvention. Below are a couple of extracts for those who didn’t get to see it.

They’ll never understand why their sister took her own life. Theories of suicide contagion might hold some important answers…

… They did not know Candice had been drawn into the river of suicide. For them to know that, back then, Candice would have had to tell them, because they couldn’t get insider her complex teenage mind and see it for themselves. “We told each other everything,” says her sister Samantha, 20. “But that was something she didn’t say.”

“There were no signs,” says her sister Kayla, 21. “She was the type to put a smile on everyone’s face. That’s why we didn’t see it coming. There were no signs. No depression, No signs of unhappiness. She would come home from school happy.”

Shortly after returning home from school on February 28, 2013, Candice took her own life inside her locked bedroom. The only insight into her feelings was her Facebook status update: “I wonder how many people would miss me if I was gone?”

Candice’s mum, Dulcie, weeps for her nightly. It was her beloved stepdad, Steve, who burst through her bedroom

door at their home in Logan, southeast Queensland, to find her. Most nights, when he rests his head on his pillow and closes his eyes, the first thing he sees is Candice in that bedroom.

Her sisters, Kayla, Samantha and Aneta, walk numbly through a world that has spun off its axis, gnawing at the bone of unanswered questions…

… Close to midnight on a Friday night in Annerley, Brisbane, in a community hall with a side kitchen for teas and biscuits, 10 members of Cherrie Cran’s fortnightly S.O.S. Survivors of Suicide Bereavement Support Association group are trying to unlock the secrets to suicide.

These 10 women – wives, daughters, girlfriends, mothers – are masters of communication; they listen and empathise for 30-minute stretches of non-stop monologue as fellow members chart their harrowing journeys through suicide and all its black ripples. Brutal honesty.

A Japanese woman, Motomi, speaks delicately, defiantly about how it felt to watch her husband make several violent attempts in front of her before finally completing his suicide. Eva, telling her story with a newborn baby to her chest, relays what she will tell her child about where her dad is now.

Issue No. 14/3 May / June 2014

Caring, Support, Awareness, Education

Telephone Help Line: 1300 767 022

Extract: “The Ripple Effect -- Trent Dalton

2 May/June 2014

Jenny leans forward, puzzled: “One girl said to my daughter, ‘Just go and die’. This girl said to her, ‘Just go into a dungeon and die’. They said that to her.”

Cathy, a nurse, speaks about a brother who took his life in front of her. She speaks of another brother whose suicide occurred in a locked house. “His dog was locked inside the house with him,” she says. “The dog eventually got so hungry it …” She weeps. A shudder spreads across the table. Cathy speaks about the toll such memories have on the human brain, what thoughts they planted in her own mind.

“It really is a contagion,” says Cherrie Cran, whose son, Bede, died by suicide at 19 in 2010. “For each person we lose, and that’s over 2000 every year in Australia, it’s not just seven people the ‘ripple effect’ touches. I don’t know about you guys, but my son had more than seven people in his life, not even counting his friends. There were his workmates, there was the neighbour who had to jump the fence and help me do CPR…”

“It is an epidemic and it is a hidden epidemic,” says Donna Cumming, whose husband Neville typed out an exhaustive and meticulous suicide note with practical details on finances, his belongings, his debts. “If it was something like meningococcal killing six people every day in Australia there would be widespread panic. Everyone would be up in arms. Well, it’s happening, and it’s a silent epidemic. We’re scared of suicide because we can’t see it. But it’s no different to any disease. It’s a disease of the brain and it has to be treated.” Cherrie nods her head vigorously “The concept of talking,” she says. “Suicide First Aid.”

In the middle of last year, science and academia caught up with the things Cherrie has been saying at her fortnightly group meeting for the past four years. If suicide is a contagion, its cure is education.

Why write a 5000-word magazine story about suicide and risk planting the idea of suicide in another young person’s mind? Because suicide prevention is contagious too. If suicide is an idea passed through social circles, through schoolyards, through gossip networks, then suicide prevention must trace its serpentine path.

“There is a worldwide phenomenon happening right now and it’s very, very new, where we are finally understanding that the impact of suicide is a public health issue and the sheet numbers make it a public health issue,” says Jill Fisher, the groundbreaking Australian “suicidologist” who established in 2002 the 24-hour StandBy Response Service for family and friends bereaved through suicide, and oversees the only federally funded program responding to suicide contagion and clusters across Australia. “If your loved one dies in a car accident you’re not likely to die in a

car accident, but if your loved one dies in a suicide, you immediately go into that at-risk group.”

… In May 2013 a study by Dr Ian Colman, a researcher into mental health epidemiology at the University of Ottawa in Canada, and Sonja Swanson of the Harvard School of Public Health in the US, brought the loose theory into alarming focus. “Suicide contagion is that idea that one person’s suicide could influence another person’s thoughts or behaviours around suicide,” says Colman. “So one person’s suicide could lead another person to start thinking about suicide as a solution to their problems.”

… “It absolutely is frightening and I think it should be concerning for parents , for communities and for schools,” he says. “It suggests we should be reaching out to everybody in the school. School-wide interventions.

“If they don’t have someone to talk to about it, they’re left to process this on their own and they don’t have the support for discussing what to do with this. If people are dealing with issues on their own, regardless of whether it’s bullying, or abuse, or mental illness, and often it’s a culmination of many factors, they want a change in their life and they’re thinking of different things they can do – and what you don’t want is them thinking of suicide as a potential solution to their problem.”

In spotlighting the contagion, Colman spotlit the cure. “The most important thing parents can do is create an environment at home where children feel comfortable talking about mental health and suicide if they want to,” he says.

You talk about it in schools, he says. You talk smartly about it at home. You get journalists to write about it. You get them to write things in their magazine pieces like: It’s OK to feel this way. Thousands are feeling like you and thousands are getting help with it and there is so much help out there if you know where to look. This thing you’re going through, this painful, suckful, dreadful thing, well, someone’s been through it before and someone out there knows about getting through it. In the meantime, here’s the number for the Suicide Call Back Service, 1300 659 467, and is there anything you need me to do?

“It can’t be taboo,” Colman says. “And every time we have a conversation we should be reminding people there’s help out there for you.”

Every four hours in Australia someone takes their own life. It’s the leading cause of death in this country for men under 44 and women under 34. For every completed suicide an estimated 30 people attempt suicide. Every 10 minutes an Australian attempts suicide. An estimated 249 people make a suicide plan every day. An estimated 1014

Extract: “The Ripple Effect Cont’d

S E Q U O I A C L U B

May/June 2014 3

people think about suicide every day.

March, 2009: Zac Harvey, 15, from Western Heights College, Geelong, took his life after having an argument with his girlfriend, Taylor Janssen, 16, who took her life three weeks later. Amid concerns over extensive and overly detailed media coverage of the deaths, another Western Heights College student, 14-year-old Chanelle Rae, died by suicide.

March, 2011: Rowan Membrey, 17, a former student of Beaconhills College, a private school of 3000 students in Berwick, Victoria, took his life on a railway after a battle with drugs and depression. Almost 1000 people attended his funeral. Within six months, two more Beaconhills College students died in railway deaths. “In the past we have said nothing and we can’t anymore,” says Beaconhills College principal, Tony Sheumack. “We are raising some very, very difficult questions and we are dabbling a little with what the answers might be. I’m not sure we know where we are going but we have to try.”

The contagion spread and former Beaconhills student Jessica Cummings went looking for a solution. She helped create a Facebook page, Coming Together to Prevent Youth Suicide, which today has more than 19,000 members. Today a young woman posts “I have thought that I have depression for nearly 5 years and it is REALLY hard after all the time to tell people and be honest about it. I hate it, I am over it all, I want to be the old me, the me that I have [been] pretending to be for years. I want to be that girl without all the effort of the daily fake smile and knowing that that person isn’t really me. Sorry, I needed to vent a little bit.” And today, two education people reply to her within minutes.

March, 2012: Five residents of Mackay, Queensland, took their own lives in a single week; another 10 attempted or threatened to. The week stirred memories of the two-week period in 2008 in which a cluster of five residents took their lives. At a community breakfast in Mackay, Renee Martin, a woman from nearly Airlie Beach whose husband, Merv, took his life in February 2010, watched a priest break down as he reflected on two local teen suicides he supported families with in the same week. In September 2013, Renee organised a group of 100 locals touched directly by suicide to walk across Mackay’s Forgan Bridge in the name of public discussion.

“You could see the relief on people’s faces because they were in a place where they could talk about it,” she says. “I know some think of suiciding themselves. You go through a stage where you stop talking about it with family and friends anymore because you don’t want them to be worried or concerned. It’s been four years this Saturday

since Merv died. I’ve finally stopped counting weeks, I go to months now. But I think about it every single day.”

In the living room of her lowset brick family home in Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Kaylene Donohue reaches behind a collection of wall cabinet ornaments and family keepsakes and finds a blown-up photograph of her three children, Terry, Brad and Tracey. “So much darkness,” she says, gripping the photo with both hands. “I was in so much pain I could not stand up. Just totally numb.”

In the space of a decade, all three of Kaylene’s children took their own lives, all employing the same method of hanging. She reaches for a small square canvas oil painting of a hulking grey HMAS Jervis Bay. Her eldest boy, Terry, painted it when he was a naval recruit at sea. “I think the navy taught him to drink,” she says. Terry took his life in 1993 at the age of 21 after a battle with alcohol and depression.

“Brad couldn’t cope with it,” she says. “We went through six years of pain. He was a good kid, the first person to help you out, but he changed after Terry. He took to drugs and unfortunately I enabled him. Because I’d lost Terry, I didn’t want to lose anyone else. So I gave and gave and gave until I had nothing left to give. He was totally high on I don’t know what towards the end.” Brad died in 1999.

Kaylene shuffles down her hallway, returns with a framed photo of her daughter, Tracey, with her husband, Robert, on their wedding day. “Tracey had a double whammy,” Kaylene says. “She met the man of her dreams and unfortunately he died of motor neurone disease, seven months after Terry died.” Tracey took her own life in 2003.

“Tracey and Brad, they didn’t set out to do what they did. You know, they just could not cope with Terry being gone. That was it. It just happened. And, look, I had thoughts. I thought about that road myself, absolutely. I drowned myself in drink.”

She reached out when the darkness was most suffocating. She found a support group of suicide survivors. She found Jill Fisher. She channelled her pain into a book, The Continuing Ripples of Living Beyond Suicide.

“Nobody talks about contagion,” she says. “Because nobody talks about suicide at all.” She looks across to alounge suite on which she’s spent the past half-hour laying out her children’s photos. She shakes her head as a thought comes to her. “I went from being smothered with flowers and cards after Terry died to a couple of cards when Brad died to none at all when Tracey died,” she says. Nobody could find the right words to put in a card after Tracey’s death. Kaylene Donohue’s pain had gone beyond the realms of human understanding.

Extract: “The Ripple Effect Cont’d

4 May/June 2014

Tracey was a mother to two kids. Her eldest son is 21 now. When his friends ask him about his mother, he tells them she was a brave police-woman who was shot on duty.

… Professor Graham Martin is a child psychiatrist of 34 years’ experience working out of Brisbane’s Royal Children’s Hospital and the University of Queensland. He was unlocking the secrets of suicide contagion in the mid-‘80s when he studied students in 27 schools in South Australia that had experienced teen suicide.

“Around the person who had suicided there was always roughly 10 people who were acutely distressed and thinking about suicide,” he says. “Within the 10 we found there were roughly three who had attempted suicide.”

“Contagion is irrefutable and I guarantee that if you went with a mental health professional to any high school in Australia and sit down with a school counsellor you would be told of about 25 young people who are in deep trouble, half of whom are not getting services.”

Martin believes teens can become “bludgeoned by life”, worn down by perfect storms of bullying, isolation, neglect. When the idea of suicide enters that mix the result, he says, “is absolutely lethal”.

“But if we could find them after the fact, why the hell can’t we work with schools to find those kids before they suicide?” he says.

He believes mental health services for young people “have been too little, too late”. He’d prefer money spent on mental health services channelled to resilience and awareness programs inside schools. “We tried very hard to get early intervention onto the map and it’s a constant struggle because the average doctor comes across a young person who’s depressed and reaches for the prescription pad,” he says. “I’ve spent half my professional life taking kids off pharmaceutical drugs.”

In May, Candice Brown-Hunt’s sisters handed in a petition with more than 500 signatures to the Queensland

Government to make suicide prevention programs part of the school curriculum, to create environments where students felt comfortable to discuss their thoughts and where students knew the right things to say should a

fellow student confide in them. “If you’ve got room to teach kids to speak German you have room to teach them about teen suicide,” the sisters say.

“I think you’ve got to be careful,” says principal Alan Jones, echoing the position of the Queensland Government. “Suicide is a big issue in terms of the critical nature of it. I wouldn’t just be jumping in and making announcements… and making it part of the curriculum. Any school as to have a really good student support team and that team has to be attuned to the needs of students and know how to respond.

At the outdoor table in her sister’s courtyard, Kayla does something she’s been doing for the past year of her life – trying to rewind time, turning back to the weeks and days before her beloved Candice went away.

“I’ll be honest,” she says. “If she came to me and said, ‘I’m having thoughts about killing myself’, I would have said, ‘Don’t be an idiot’. And she would have known that was exactly how I would have reacted. She wouldn’t have felt comfortable talking to me about it. She needed someone who knew what to say.”

To Kayla’s left, her younger sister, Aneta, recalls the pain of Candice’s farewell ceremony, and open coffin gathering at their mum Dulcie’s house, befitting their New Zealand heritage. “I’ve never seen so many people in one house,” she says. “There was hundreds of people. The whole street became filled with people and cars, people from everywhere walking up to see her.”

Aneta weeps, wipes tears away with her palms. “We were there from five o’clock in the afternoon to about 10pm that night because so many people were coming through. That’s how many people cared about her. The street was packed. She was very loved. Everybody cared.”

Amid the hugs and the tears and the love that spread through Dulcie’s house like contagion, Aneta took time out to walk to the kitchen window and lean out and tilt her head to the blue sky.

“See Candice, look who cares for you,” she said. “Does that answer your question?”

SOSBSA would like to thank Trent Dalton and the Weekend Australian Magazine for their genuine interest and caring about those who are lost to suicide.

Extract: “The Ripple Effect Cont’d Extract: “The Ripple Effect Cont’d

S E Q U O I A C L U B

May/June 2014 5

An Ugly Pair of Shoes I am wearing a pair of shoes.

They are ugly shoes. Uncomfortable Shoes.

I hate my shoes. Each day I wear them, and each day I wish I had another pair.

Some days my shoes hurt so bad that I do not think I can take another step. Yet, I continue to wear them.

I get funny looks wearing these shoes. They are looks of sympathy.

I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my shoes and not theirs. They never talk about my shoes.

To learn how awful my shoes are might make them uncomfortable. To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them. But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.

I now realize that I am not the only one who wears these shoes. There are many pairs in the world.

Some women are like me and ache daily as they try and walk in them. Some have learned how to walk in them so they don’t hurt quite as much.

Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think of how much they hurt. No woman deserves to wear these shoes.

Yet, because of the shoes I am a stronger woman. These shoes have given me the strength to face anything.

They have made me who I am. I will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has lost a child.

Author Unknown

SOSBSA Facebook We now have more than 5,400

people who follow us on facebook.

Join in our online support group.

Search SOSBSA

Call for Stamp Donations. You can help us by donating unused stamps

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It all helps to keep our costs down so we can use our valuable funds in other ways to

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From Vicky Pickles ~

Another day for you to wonder, another day for

you to mourn

It wasn't my intention to go before the coming

dawn

My pain was deep within my heart and troubled

head

It wasn't my intention to go without words said.

My frame of mind seemed normal, or so I heard

them say

It wasn't my intention not to see another day

I did not mean to make you suffer or cause you so

much pain

It wasn't my intention to never see you again.

Despair and confusion left my aching mind unsure

It wasn't my intention to suddenly close life's

door

If only I could give you reasons and brush the

tears away

It wasn't my intention to leave and not stay.

I did not mean for you to grieve, now left alone to

cry

It wasn't my intention to leave you, forever asking

why

As the burdens of life's worries slowly ebb from

my heart

It wasn't my intention to tear your soul apart.

6 May/June 2014

Hi everyone and welcome to the May/June edition of our newsletter for 2014.

This newsletter includes an extract from the article that I told you about last issue in case you missed it.

Sorry to those who saw it.

While Trent visited us at a support group meeting there were videos taken of some of us sending a

message to our lost loved ones. If you would like to watch this, it will have to be online. So, you can

either click on the link below or type it into the url address. Sorry for those who don’t have a computer.

This is part of the lead-up promotion of the story that was released in hard copy on 23 March 2014.

I will again point out that this cover article is based on conversations that Trent has had with some of us,

and even if you don’t agree with all the statements, please respect everyone’s right to feel how they

feel. I’m sure you all will.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/suicide-is-a-permanent-solution-to-a-temporary-

problem/story-e6frg8h6-1226861447727

SOSBSA would like to thank Trent Dalton for his genuine interest and caring about those who are lost to

suicide.

Now onto the updates for this month:

New Gold Coast Support Group:

We would like to welcome Jane Holmes as our new coordinator for the Gold Coast support group. Jane has been working with people who are bereaved by suicide on the coast for some time, and is now starting a support group. This group will be an SOSBSA group.

2014 Membership: Don’t forget that your 2014 membership is now due. If you haven’t been a member before, please consider becoming a member and providing us with your support. You can pay by direct deposit or through paypal. Looking forward to having you join us in 2014.

Dateclaimers: Candlelight Memorial – Friday 3rd October at 7pm – To be confirmed. International Survivors of Suicide Day – Saturday 22nd November – details to be confirmed.

If you have any ideas for other functions or things you would like us to do, please let me know. The Management Committee will be undertaking planning for the year over the next couple of months.

Take care of yourselves and know that there is always someone to share

your journey with.

Love and peace to you all

Cherrie xoxo

President’s Report -- Cherrie Cran

S E Q U O I A C L U B

May/June 2014 7

A loved one's suicide can be emotionally devastating. Use healthy coping strategies — such as seeking support — to begin the journey to healing and acceptance.

When a loved one commits suicide, overwhelming emotions can leave you reeling. Your grief might be heart wrenching. At the same time, you might be consumed by guilt — wondering if you could have done something to prevent your loved one's death.

As you face life after a loved one's suicide, remember that you don't have to go through it alone.

Brace for powerful emotions

A loved one's suicide can trigger intense emotions. For example:

Shock. Disbelief and emotional numbness might set in. You might think that your loved one's suicide couldn't possibly be real.

Anger. You might be angry with your loved one for abandoning you or leaving you with a legacy of grief — or angry with yourself or others for missing clues about suicidal intentions.

Guilt. You might replay "what if" and "if only" scenarios in your mind, blaming yourself for your loved one's death.

Despair. You might be gripped by sadness, loneliness or helplessness. You might have a physical collapse or even consider suicide yourself.

You might continue to experience intense reactions during the weeks and months after your loved one's suicide — including nightmares, flashbacks, difficulty concentrating, social withdrawal and loss of interest in usual activities — especially if you witnessed or discovered the suicide.

Adopt healthy coping strategies

The aftermath of a loved one's suicide can be physically and emotionally exhausting. As you work through your grief, be careful to protect your own well-being.

Keep in touch. Reach out to loved ones, friends and spiritual leaders for comfort, understanding and healing. Surround yourself with people who are willing to listen when you need to talk, as well as those who'll simply offer a shoulder to lean on when you'd rather be silent.

Grieve in your own way. Do what's right for you, not necessarily someone else. If you find it too painful to visit your loved one's gravesite or share the details of your loved one's death, wait until you're ready.

Be prepared for painful reminders. Anniversaries, holidays and other special occasions can be painful

reminders of your loved one's suicide. Don't chide yourself for being sad or mournful. Instead, consider changing or suspending family traditions that are too painful to continue.

Don't rush yourself. Losing someone to suicide is a tremendous blow, and healing must occur at its own pace. Don't be hurried by anyone else's expectations that it's been "long enough."

Expect setbacks. Some days will be better than others, even years after the suicide — and that's OK. Healing doesn't often happen in a straight line.

Consider a support group for families affected by suicide. Sharing your story with others who are experiencing the same type of grief might help you find a sense of purpose or strength.

Know when to seek professional help

If you experience intense or unrelenting anguish or physical problems, ask your doctor or mental health provider for help. Seeking professional help is especially important if you think you might be depressed or you have recurring thoughts of suicide. Keep in mind that unresolved grief can turn into complicated grief, where painful emotions are so long lasting and severe that you have trouble resuming your own life.

Depending on the circumstances, you might benefit from individual or family therapy — either to get you through the worst of the crisis or to help you adjust to life after suicide. Short-term medication can be helpful in some cases, too.

Face the future with a sense of peace

In the aftermath of a loved one's suicide, you might feel like you can't go on or that you'll never enjoy life again.

In truth, you might always wonder why it happened — and reminders might trigger painful feelings even years later. Eventually, however, the raw intensity of your grief will fade. The tragedy of the suicide won't dominate your days and nights.

Understanding the complicated legacy of suicide and how to cope with palpable grief can help you reach inner peace and healing, while still honoring the memory of your loved one.

From:http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/end-of-life/in-depth/suicide/art-20044900?pg=1

Mayo Clinic by Mayo Clinic Staff dated 12 May 2012

Suicide Grief: Healing after a loved

one’s suicde -- Mayo Clinic Website – dated 12 May 2012

8 May/June 2014

Other S.O.S.B.S.A. Support Group Meetings

Disclaimer: Unless expressly stated, the views expressed in articles, poetry etc in this newsletter are not

necessarily the views of SOSBSA. Any articles, poems, quotes that are stated as ‘author unknown’ within this

newsletter are reproduced in good faith and do not intentionally contravene copyright laws.

Brisbane Support Group (473 Annerley Road Annerley)

Friday fortnightly at 7:30pm

May – 9, 23

June – 6, 20

Contact: Cherrie 0423 567 055

Disclaimer: Unless expressly stated, the views expressed in articles, poetry etc in this newsletter are not

necessarily the views of SOSBSA. Any articles, poems, quotes that are stated as ‘author unknown’ within this

newsletter are reproduced in good faith and do not intentionally contravene copyright laws.

Membership

Pensioner / Student $20

Adult member $30

Family $50

Not-For-Profit Org. $50

Affiliate Business $100

You are now able to do this all online: www.sosbsa.org.au (About us tab/Membership)

or contact secretary@sosbsa.org.au

Memberships help pay for printing, copying, mailing

and our telephone help line.

Gladstone Support Group

The Gladstone Neighbourhood Centre

105 Toolooa St, Gladstone

2nd Thursday of every month 10am - 12pm

Contact Michaelle on 0413 121 512

Cairns Support Group

2nd Tuesday of every month at 7:30pm.

Contact Fran: 4045 2955 or 0407 695 891

Bundaberg Support Group

Neighbourhood Centre 111 Targo Street, Bundaberg

2nd Wednesday of every month at 10:30 am

Contact Peter: 07 4155 1015

Mackay Support Group

Gordon White Library Meeting Room 54 Phillip Street, Mt Pleasant, Mackay

2nd Saturday of every month at 2 pm

Contact Kim: 0430 186 149

Whitsundays Support Group

Crisis & Counselling Centre, Cannonvale Business Centre

Shute Harbour Road Airlie Beach

1st Saturday of every month 2pm

Contact Renee: 0412 448 805

Gold Coast Support Group Coming Soon – Details TBA

Interested in starting a support group?

Contact us: secretary@sosbsa.org.au or 1300 767 022

SOSBSA Phone

Volunteers WANTED

We are looking for expressions of interest

regarding volunteering for our 1300 help line.

Training will be provided.

Contact secretary@sosbsa.org.au or 1300 767 022 for more information.

Management Committee

President: Cherrie Cran

Vice President: Donna Cumming Treasurer: Darrin Larney

Secretary: Motomi Sakurada Members: Anne

Beryl Pitson Cathy Lane

NEW

S O S B S A

May/June 2014 9

If you wish to receive this newsletter via email, please email us at secretary@sosbsa.org.au

Other Suicide Support Groups If you would like to add your suicide support group to this page, please email secretary@sosbsa.org.au

If you wish to receive this newsletter via email, please email us at secretary@sosbsa.org.au

Thank You

Thank you to Maree

Hart for her generous donation of stamps to help with posting newsletters

and information packs. Much

appreciated. xxxx

Chermside

Lifeline Brisbane North

766 Gympie Road Chermside

Monthly: 1st Thursday of each month at 6:00pm—8:00pm

Contact: Lyndall Stafford Email:

enquiries@uccommunity.org.au

Phone: 07 3624 2400

Also

Lifeline facilitates an 8-week closed

therapeutic group for the bereaved

by suicide (daytime at Chermside

and night time at Fortitude Valley).

Contact: Lyndall Stafford at above

phone number or email address.

VIC

Survivors of Suicide Inc.

515 Chilsolm St

Ballarat

Monthly: 1st Tuesday the month

at 7:00-9:00pm.

Contact: Pauline: 0438 535 799

or Kristy 0427 762 92

www.survivorsofsuicide.com.au

NSW

Lifeline Harbour To

Hawkesbury

4 Park Ave, Gordon, NSW

Monthly: 2nd Thursday of the

month at 7:00-9:00pm.

Phone: 02 9498 8805

Email: admin@lifelineh2h.com

Lifeline MidCoast NSW

Sherwood Road Port Macquarie.

Meetings held on the 4th

Wednesday of the month.

Contact Lee-Ann 02 6581 2800

or email

lifematters@lifelinemidcoast

.org.au

If you wish to receive this newsletter via email, please email us at secretary@sosbsa.org.au

Sunshine Coast

Head High Young People

Living Beyond Suicide Support Group

Maroochy Neighbourhood

Centre Fifth Avenue, Maroochydore

Linda —5479 0394

Meetings are held last Thursday of the

month at 4:30 —6:30pm.

Caloundra Living Beyond Suicide Support Group

42 Croydon Avenue Currimundi

Jeanine and Ron —5491 7452

Meetings are held every 1st

Monday of the month at 10:00am-12 noon.

Gold Coast

Lifeline

2791 Gold Coast Road Broadbeach

Monthly: 1st Friday of the

month Time: 6:30-8:30pm

Phone: 5579 6000

Other Suicide Support Groups If you would like to add your suicide support group to this page, please email secretary@sosbsa.org.au

S O S B S A

10 March/April 2014

For everyone whose anniversary of their loved one is in March / April: On this

anniversary of your loved one’s death, may you remember the best experiences you shared, the most meaningful words that were spoken, the happiest moments you had

together and the comfort that has given you the courage to go on.

QLD Helplines Standby Brisbane 07 3250 1856

Standby Response Service 0438 150 180 (24 hour mobile crisis response to suicide bereavement.)

Sunshine and Cooloola Coasts 0407 766 961

National Helplines LifeLine: 13 11 14 (24 hour)

Mensline: 1300 789 978 (24 hour)

Suicide Callback Line: 1300 659 467 (24 hour) National Hope Line: 1300 467 354 (24 hour bereavement support)

Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 Kids Help Line: 1800 55 1800 (24 hour)

SANE Helpline: 1800 18 SANE (M-F 9am-5pm)

Photo by Pia Koskelainen

In Memoriam If you would like an ‘in memoriam’, please send an anniversary record to SOSBSA, P.O. Box 334, Springwood 4127 or email to secretary@sosbsa.org.au.

Loved one lost to suicide: Kevin Luijs Your Name: Mum, George and loving family Date of Birth: 5 Sept 1986 Date of Death: 16 May 2009 Message: 5 long years have passed, you are forever in our hearts. We all miss you so deeply xx Loved one lost to suicide: Sean C Ladd Your Name: Anne Date of Birth: 24 Dec 1975 Date of Death: 30 May 2013 Message: The kids and I miss u dearly and talk about you all the time. Its still so hard to believe that you're really gone. I love u more than words schmoopy ... until we meet again