StandBy Support After Suicide is proud to be announced as the first suicide prevention program in Australia to be fully accredited against the Suicide Prevention Australia Standards for Quality Improvement, 1st Edition.
StandBy is Australia’s national postvention service, supporting people and communities bereaved or impacted by suicide now for twenty years. The announcement marks an important milestone for the delivery of safe, high-quality and effective suicide prevention and postvention programs across Australia.
Implemented by Suicide Prevention Australia and assessed by independent, not-for-profit accreditation provider, Quality Innovation Performance Limited (QIP), the Suicide Prevention Accreditation Program supports organisations to deliver safe, effective and quality suicide prevention and postvention programs.
The goal of the program is to ensure every person who needs support can access a consistently high standard of care.
StandBy is a program of Youturn Limited, Youturn CEO Tanya Bell said she could not be more proud of the efforts of the StandBy National team, lead by General Manager Karen Phillips, for being the first organisation in the nation to gain the accreditation.
“The StandBy team have always taken immense pride in the high-quality services we provide across Australia,” Dr Bell said.
“The recognition and endorsement of our efforts through accreditation is validation for the work of our teams.”
StandBy General Manager, Karen Phillips said she’s extremely proud StandBy is the first to be accredited in Australia.
“It’s a huge achievement, at StandBy, we pride ourselves on delivering programs that are evidence-based and subjected to thorough assessments to measure their true impact on lives and, most importantly, we’re guided by those with lived experience of suicide bereavement, Ms Phillips said.
“Postvention is about supporting families, friends, colleagues and communities at any stage after their loss. Our service is available 24/7 across Australia via our 1300 727 247 support number.
“Research consistently finds that StandBy plays an important role in preventing further suicides amongst people bereaved by suicide,” said Ms Phillips.
Suicide Prevention Australia CEO, Nieves Murray congratulated StandBy for being the first program in Australia to become accredited.
“It’s been a challenging couple of years for so many Australians and there’s still great uncertainty in our community – it could not be a more important time for Australia’s first suicide prevention accreditation program,” Ms Murray said.
“It’s essential that anyone in distress who seeks help, can access services that are safe and actually work.
“This accreditation system will help improve the quality of services and programs available in Australia and, in turn, help save more lives,” Ms Murray said.
The Suicide Prevention Accreditation program offers a range of resources and templates that can support suicide prevention programs through the process of becoming accredited.
QIP certificate presented to the Standby National team at the Maroochydore head office.
L-R Susan Vaughan, Rebecca Kasapis, Karen Phillips, Dr Tanya Bell, Emily Tutton.
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If you, or someone you know, needs immediate crisis support, please seek help immediately by calling 000 or one of these services:
Lifeline 13 11 14 Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 QLife 1800 184 527
StandBy – an initiative funded by the Australian Government.
The Suicide Prevention Accreditation program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.
Media contact
Lou Gleeson
M: 0475 577 711
