Pilbara Health Network

The StandBy Response Service is a planned approach for a coordinated community response to the needs of those bereaved through suicide. The program involves collaboration between local, state and federal government and non-government services to develop the capacity of the Pilbara region to provide early intervention and ongoing support to those who lose a family member, friend or associate through suicide. It is anticipated that the Pilbara Region StandBy Service will commence delivery of a 24-hour, 7 days a week, on a call response to people bereaved by suicide for the whole of the Pilbara area.

StandBy is a commonwealth funded (Department of Health and Ageing) program that has now been funded to run at 9 sites across Australia. StandBy provides trauma counselling to anyone affected by suicide. We also coordinate a sustained response to those requiring ongoing assistance by partnering with other agencies to provide whatever the bereaved require. StandBy also has a mandate for identifying gaps in the capacity of each community dealing with bereavement and will work with other agencies to fill this gap.

StandBy also provides a completely confidential face-to-face debriefing and counselling service to all first responders, such as police and ambulance officers, health workers, funeral directors etc which is completely free of charge. The StandBy Trauma team comprises highly trained and completely professional workers, whom receive on-going training on a regular basis to keep them informed of any new developments in the field and to keep their skills fine-tuned.