Suicide prevention training for LGBTIQA+ leaders

South Australian LGBTIQA+ community leaders can apply.

Applicants must:

• identify as LGBTIQA+
• live in South Australia
• be aged 16 or older
• provide volunteer peer support to LGBTIQA+ South Australians.

Peer support can be provided in different ways, including:

• online, in-person, in a group or one-on-one
• peer lead, or facilitated by someone with professional experience
• involving social meet ups or shared activities
• focused on a specific issue, or for a particular group of people
• run by a volunteer, partially funded or fully funded project or body
• volunteering on a committee or board of an LGBTIQA+ community organisation.

Applicants will receive a financial subsidy of up to $250 to complete certified mental health training of their choosing, for example:

• Mental health first aid
• Accidental Counsellor training
• Alternatives to Suicide (Alt2Su)
• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
• Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR)
• another equivalent course endorsed by SARAA.

2 set courses will available and fully subsidised:

Mental Health First Aid Training with Zac Cannell:

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST).

Other courses are available through Mental health training providers including:

• Lifeline Adelaide
• St John SA
• Practice Institute Australia
• LELAN
• Human Connections

If you’d like to complete a specific course or train with a provider that’s not listed above, contact us to discuss it at info@saraa.org.au.

SARAA will arrange payment and bookings for successful applicants on their behalf.

Training must be completed by 31 August 2023.

This program is no longer running.

People living in regional and remote South Australia can request a travel subsidy to reduce the costs of travelling to attend training in Adelaide.

South Australian LGBTIQA+ communities have experienced a long history of homophobia, transphobia, discrimination and abuse, which significantly increases our risk of suicide.

Despite our clear need for support the availability of LGBTIQA+ inclusive mental health service providers in South Australia is limited, with few services having undertaken formal LGBTIQA+ inclusion training.

Responsibility for suicide prevention therefore often falls upon volunteer community-run peer support groups who have long provided safe spaces for our community to connect, yet aren’t provided with the training necessary to provide mental health support and are often managing their own experiences of mental ill health.

This creates a perfect storm for LGBTIQA+ South Australians – the limited availability of culturally safe mental health services leaves volunteers exposed to suicidality of those they support, yet unequipped to respond to mental health crisis. 

As such, LGBTIQA+ community leaders regularly experience burnout and support groups are caught in a vicious cycle of vital but unsustainable suicide prevention through peer support.

This program is proudly supported by Wellbeing SA as part of the 2022/23 South Australian Suicide Prevention Community Grants Scheme.