Living Beyond Suicide Program: The effectiveness of volunteer training

Living Beyond Suicide (LBS) is a postvention program in South Australia funded under the National Suicide Prevention Strategy by the Department of Health and Ageing which trains volunteers to engage with individual and family survivors following the suicide of a family member. Volunteers were intensively trained in a five day training program, following which they engaged with bereaved family members in pairs for a period of approximately three months. Following the training sessions, qualitative responses by 45 volunteers to a written questionnaire were thematically analysed. Questions considered the effectiveness of the training and areas in which volunteers felt the training could be improved. Whilst the volunteers show a high level of motivation and energy, care must be taken that these volunteers do not become “burnt out” in this highly stressful role. Also, increasing the volunteer base needs to occur to ensure current volunteers do not become overtaxed and to maintain the high level of service to bereaved families.