About SOSBSA

SOSBSA is a non-profit and charitable self help association formed by and for people bereaved by suicide, and offers:

• Friendship and support
• Bereavement and support groups
• Grief and loss helpline
• Awareness and education
• Promotes prevention
• Crisis intervention helpline

Our Management Committee, is composed almost entirely of members who have lost loved ones to suicide and volunteer their time to the organisation. Most of the Support Group facilitators and helpline volunteers have also lost loved ones to suicide. These are people who have reached that point in their grief journey where they are able to provide support and bring comfort to others. They are survivors just as you are.

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SOSBSA’s Aims

Aims and objectives of the Survivors of Suicide Bereavement Support Association are:

• Provide support and a safe environment for those bereaved by suicide when and if needed, to meet and share experiences with others who understand how you feel
• Provide a 24/7 telephone support line
• Provide a referral service
• Increase public awareness about suicide, suicide prevention and suicide bereavement through publicity and education
• Form links with other suicide prevention, intervention and postvention groups
• Actively pursue funding to provide ongoing support where it is needed

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SOSBSA’s Organisational Profile

Structure:

• President
• Vice-president
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Committee members
• Ordinary members
• Associate members

Funding:

• Members donation and subscriptions
• Community grants if allowed

Paid staff:

• Currently none

Volunteer staff:

• Nine people plus sundry help from committee members

Volunteer policy:

• To involve as many of SOSBSA’s members as well as people from other services and the community at large to give of their time and various talents and fields of expertise in order to attain our goals, aims and objectives.

SOSBSA’s History

In 1997 our founder and President, Bruce Dimmock while working as a private practicing counsellor saw a need for some support for people bereaved by suicide. In his attempt to locate peer support groups, professional support, or literature that might be helpful to people bereaved by suicide, he found none available.

In December 1997 Bruce learnt that the Australia Institute of Suicide Research and Prevention has held a peer support group at Friendship House New Farm. Contact with the A.I.S.R.P was made. Bruce learnt that the group had closed down and that both the A.I.S.R.P and the Queensland Association for Mental Health had asked Lifeline to take it over, this request was refused by Lifeline.

Bruce decided something needed to be done. He placed a public notice in the local Quest community newspaper, asking anyone bereaved by suicide wishing to attend a peer support group to contact him. The newspaper contacted him and their journalist, Mr Randolph Ramsay ran a story in the issue of the Southern Start on the 2rd of December 1997. The story even captured the editors attention and subsequently we made the editorial.

The first peer support group was organised for January 6th 1998. 18 people attended that meeting. People attended from as far away as Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast. Since then we have held fortnightly meetings in Mt Gravatt and attendances have always been, sadly enough quite high. We have expanded into Logan City and Brisbane North, holding fortnightly peer support groups at Springwood and Arana Hills. These support groups are facilitated by our own volunteer co-ordinators, who are graduates of our counselling course, which teaches behaviour modification, crisis intervention and grief and loss counselling techniques.

While we were meeting the needs of people bereaved by suicide and working on literature that would help the bereaved by suicide, we had given no thought to providing services for people at risk of suicide. This we felt was better left to the experts. We hadn’t been operating the Mt Gravatt group very long and at that stage had not expanded to Logan City or Brisbane North. In fact we were not even an organisation, we had no identifiable name. We were only known to 14 organisations as The Support Group for People Touched By Suicide. The group was very much a light peer therapy that was facilitated by Bruce, and as such very much in his control.

It was during this stage Bruce began receiving enquiries from other organisations both government and private both professional and community asking for assistance for people at risk of suicide. Initially Bruce would explain to them that this was only a peer support group for people bereaved by suicide, and advise them to contact their local doctor, hospital, psychologist or psychiatrist. It was only after learning that many of these people had been, or were under medical care, or had recently been released from hospital and were no better for the experience that he realised the desperation of their situation. Serious consideration had to be given to this new situation. After investigating these client’s claims and working with them, he decided that active intervention was required for people at risk.

Out of the people attending the peer support group there were enough of them who wanted to play an active part in developing some prevention program that would actually work. So The Survivors of Suicide Bereavement Support Association was formed and incorporated.
From those humble beginnings to SOSBSA today, with little or no funds, we have achieved a lot of and averted many a tragedy thanks to the dedication of our volunteer members.