For professionals

ARBOR was established in March 2007 and began operating in October of the same year.  ARBOR came about after a number of years of consultation with people bereaved by suicide by the Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention in WA and was initially managed and coordinated by Curtin University and funded by the Child Telethon Institute, prior to transferring to Anglicare WA in July 2011.

ARBOR is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing through the National Suicide Prevention Strategy under Anglicare WA.

 ARBOR is staffed by grief counsellors and is unique in having trained ‘volunteer peer supporters’ in the program.  Volunteer peer supporters are people bereaved by suicide, who have been on a path of recovery for some time and then train to become volunteers with ARBOR. 

ARBOR aims for early engagement of those bereaved by suicide with support services, resources and assistance.  These types of services are known as postvention. The ARBOR program accepts referrals from agencies in the Perth area and has an established referral relationship with the Coronial Counselling Service. ARBOR also has memorandum of understanding's with the Samaritans WA, City of Armadale and The Jesuits.

For every death by suicide, it is estimated more than 10 people are intimately affected by the loss. Many more are also affected with what has become the ‘ripple effect’ – friends, workmates, team mates, teachers and so on.

On average there are over 250 deaths by suicide each year in Western Australia leaving at least 2,500 people grieving and many more affected by these losses.

Most commonly if people bereaved by suicide try to seek help they find it difficult to navigate through both their grief and the lack of appropriate resources and services.  This can be frustrating and upsetting when people are passed from one service to another without assistance.

ARBOR will be evaluated on an ongoing basis with the wellbeing of clients and Peer Supporter volunteers monitored.  This evaluation is important as it enables us to assess how well ARBOR is helping those bereaved by suicide and if shown to be effective. 

Visit the Australian Bureau of Statistics website for more information on statistics around suicide in Australia.

ARBOR counsellors are available to come to your work place and present to professionals an overview of our service, referral advice and answer any questions you may have regarding the service.  The presentations include factual statistical data and suicide awareness information.

If you would like this service please contact us on 1300 11 44 46.

ARBOR is able to offer suicide bereavement awareness training. This is designed and presented for professionals to gain an insight into bereavement through suicide, the effects and offers advice and guidance when working with clients, including information regarding appropriate referral pathways.

If you would like to receive this service in your workplace please contact us on 1300 11 44 46. 

Trainers can arrange to attend your place of work to deliver training. Dates are to be arranged with facilitators.

For more information or to find out when the next available training is, please call ARBOR on 1300 11 44 46.

All training is free of charge.

ARBOR is able to provide critical stress debriefing in situations where a suicide has occurred in a peer group/work place/education setting.

ARBOR can be contacted on 1300 11 44 46 to attend places of work or education to provide initial support at an overwhelmingly distressing time and be able to guide the bereaved towards appropriate support and offer ongoing support.

This service is free of charge.