Let’s Talk About Suicide

Let’s Talk About Suicide is a JOY podcast that provides support, conversation, and comfort to people affected by suicide.

Many people are affected by suicide and you may have experienced the suicide of a loved one – a partner, a sibling, a child, a parent, or a friend. It can be incredibly hard to make sense of what has happened, how you can cope with it, and how to recover from it.

This podcast helps people like you through this difficult time. It is for everyone, but it has a particular emphasis on suicide bereavement in the LGBTIQA+ communities.

Listening to this podcast may raise issues for you and if this is the case, we would encourage you to contact one of the following services in Australia:

• Qlife: 1800 184 527 
• Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
• Lifeline: 13 11 14

About the Podcast

This podcast raises awareness of suicide, how it affects people, and how people can learn to live with the death of a loved one.

The podcast features the voices of four people who have lost a loved one to suicide: Beau, Lara, Peter, and Alice. They share their lived experience with you in an incredibly open and honest way. To help make sense of their experience are two experts in the field of suicide bereavement and suicide prevention: Dr Louise Flynn from Support After Suicide and Joe Ball from Switchboard Victoria.

The main themes we talk about are:

• How to talk about suicide in a safe and helpful way.
• What you might experience when you are grieving a suicide death.
• Dealing with guilt and blame.
• Preparing for anniversaries and other special occasions.
• Supporting a person who has lost someone to suicide.
• Honouring the loved one.

Let’s Talk About Suicide was produced with no government or sector funding by Hamish Blunck, a JOY volunteer, and in association with:

• Support After Suicide, a program of Jesuit Social Services, that provides support to people who have been bereaved by suicide.
• Switchboard Victoria, which provides peer-driven support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender divers, intersex, queer and asexual people, their families, allies and communities. Switchboard is also a partner of Qlife.