Support for suicide loss in New Zealand

12 May 2017

Support for suicide loss in New Zealand

After losing her husband to suicide Tauranga social worker Megan Gamble was left grieving, hurt and alone. She says her family coped with his death by sweeping it under the carpet and preferred not to speak about him.

Sadly, many people who are bereaved by suicide try to cope with their grief in silence because they don’t know where to get support. Like Megan, they sometimes find that the people around them don’t know what to say or do to help.

Megan was lucky to have the support of friends who became like family and they helped her to realise she didn’t have to grieve alone. She went to counselling and joined a suicide bereavement support group.

Suicide bereavement support groups give people the opportunity to share their experiences of grief and loss. They are safe spaces to share stories of loved ones and give recently bereaved people the chance to talk to others who have learned to live with their loss and develop strategies to cope.

“Stories from others can help so much,” Megan says. “You can empathise through your personal experience. It gives people space to open up and that may have been the first time in many years they have been able to do that.”

Today she helps run the After Suicide Support Group in Tauranga. For Megan, attending a group put her feelings of isolation to rest. She feels she’s now in the right place for herself and able to offer help to others.

Suicide bereavement support groups play a vital role in helping people who have lost someone to suicide. Groups are run by individuals and organisations throughout New Zealand.

The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand (MHF) runs a suicide bereavement advisory service, providing information, resources and advice to help people find groups in their areas, or set up and run support groups for suicide loss. Our team work alongside a range of other services that support communities and people bereaved after a suicide.

Megan and the MHF would like more people to know about bereavement support groups so those who need them know they are available.

Information about suicide prevention (including helping yourself or someone you know and coping with suicide bereavement) can be found at www.mentalhealth.org.nz/suicideprevention

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