Setting up a support group - Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand

Support groups for suicide loss are a way of providing peer support. This means people who have been through similar experiences supporting each other.

Setting up a support group
Facilitating and running a group
Working with grief and managing difficult situations
Sustainability and self-care
Resources
Suicide bereavement support groups in NZ
Submit your support group

Go back

Establishing a support group for suicide loss

A support group does not remove grief and loss but provides an opportunity to share the journey with people who have been through something similar.

There is no one way to run a support group for suicide loss. Groups might look quite different, depending on where they are located and who the members are.

Some groups might be designed for particular people, like Māori, Pasifika, LGBTI people, the Defence Forces or people from a particular faith background. Some groups go on running for years, while others come and go as they are needed.

For more information on the topics below, please see pages 16–20 in the handbook.

If you would like to start a support group for suicide loss, key questions to ask yourself include:

Who can facilitate the group?
If I plan to facilitate the group, am I ready to do this?
A group ideally requires two or more facilitators – who else can facilitate?

A facilitator has a responsibility to provide a reasonable standard of care for all people attending the group, including the facilitators themselves.

If you are suicide bereaved, we recommend that a reasonable amount of time has passed since your bereavement and that you have had the opportunity to process your own loss, or understand what it means for you and the implications of the loss on your life.

While there is no set amount of time that ‘should’ pass, a minimum of at least one year is recommended, while two or three years is preferable. This time space allows you to gain an understanding of your own journey or personal experience of suicide bereavement. Each journey before and after a suicide is unique.

Facilitation is a two-way process. You need to be ‘safe’ to coordinate a group, that is, not cause further stress or trauma for participants. The group also needs to be ‘safe’ for you and not cause you undue or overwhelming stress or trauma.

To help you decide if you are ready to facilitate a group you can complete a facilitation self-assessment checklist.

For other factors to take into considerations before facilitating a support group for suicide loss, look to pages 26–31 in the handbook.

To begin a group there are a few factors you may want to consider, including:

Who will be attending your group and whether there is a need for your group or if there is a similar group running in your area.
How will you advertise your group to attract members?
What format will group take, for eg regular meetings, walking groups, small or large numbers?
Who will help facilitate the groups – yourself, other speakers, a mixture of both?

A facilitator is a group leader, someone who runs a meeting and helps a group meet its objectives.

In a support group for suicide loss, a facilitator may be either a volunteer from the community or someone with a professional background (such as a counsellor, psychologist or social worker), who may or may not be suicide bereaved.

Group facilitators may take responsibility for all tasks associated with running a group; however, groups often share tasks among key members.

Some of these tasks might include:

setting up the venue before a meeting and packing up afterwards
providing refreshments (water, tea, coffee, biscuits, snacks)
offering karakia or prayer at meetings
sending out a regular newsletter to group members
maintaining social media (such as a Facebook page)
offering telephone support to other members
maintaining resources for group use, including books to lend.

Your group does not have to provide all these things, however some groups choose to. The key point here is whatever your group provides, in the spirit of peer support, find ways to share responsibilities.

Find and book a suitable venue. This may be a community venue, for example a local hall or meeting room. Alternatively, meetings may be held at someone’s home.

Ideally the venue should be somewhere people feel secure, warm and comfortable. Privacy and confidentiality are important, so make sure your venue allows for this (for example, the doors can be closed so the room is kept private during meetings) and ensure meetings are not interrupted. You will also need a toilet, as well as kitchen facilities for organising tea and coffee.

Consider people's access needs. Ask people whether they need any support to participate in meetings. This could include facilities such as wheelchair ramps or accessible toilets, written information in a different format, like large print or email, or an interpreter during meetings.

You may consider asking a local organisation to support your work by becoming your ‘umbrella organisation’. An umbrella organisation may assist by providing a venue, photocopying facilities and advertising, and support to let other organisations know about your group.

Look for local support organisations and attend meetings to get to know different sectors and people. This can help raise awareness of your group and may help in finding a suitable umbrella organisation.