Acknowledgements
The GPMHSC would like to acknowledge the After Suicide Working Group for their time and hard work in developing the second edition of the After Suicide Guide. The working group included GP Representative Roxane Craig, GP Representative Lucy Randall, Consumer Representative LewChing Yip and Carer Representative Ambrose Mareng.
We would also like to thank the GPMHSC Committee for their involvement in the review of the guide, and external organisations including the RACGP, Everymind, Suicide Prevention Australia, the Healing Foundation, Movember and LGBTIQ+ Health Australia for their deeply valuable input.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this resource may contain references to distressing topics. Some linked resources may include images, names or voices of people who have passed.
Introduction
Every day in Australia, approximately nine people die by suicide1: in 2024, 3,3072 such deaths were recorded nationally. Each death has profound and long-lasting impacts on families, communities and clinicians. Suicide bereavement is often described as ‘grief with the volume turned up’, reflecting the intensity and complexity of such a loss.
This guide – After suicide: A resource for GPs – supports GPs who are responding to suicide in their communities and practices. A loss by suicide is different to other types of loss, and there is deep complexity in the experience. Aligning with broader suicide prevention and postvention reform in Australia, it provides practical guidance, links and resources for bereaved individuals, families and communities. As a companion resource to the GPMHSC’s Suicide prevention: A resource for GPs, it complements existing clinical guidance and mental health training.
As a trusted point of contact, a GP has a central role in providing compassionate, informed and culturally safe postvention care within Australia’s evolving suicide prevention system. This guide aims to support GPs to fulfil that role in a sustainable and connected way, and to support GPs who are themselves affected by suicide.
When supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples affected by suicide, GPs need to understand suicide and postvention within a Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) framework, which recognises the central importance of connection to Country, culture, spirituality, family, kinship and community, as well as the ongoing impacts of colonisation, racism and intergenerational trauma. The Victorian Suicide Prevention and Response Strategy 2024–2034 emphasises the need for approaches that are coordinated, culturally responsive and led by people with lived experience. Nationally, postvention is also embedded in the National Suicide and Self-harm Monitoring System, led by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).