World Suicide Prevention Day: Why Safe Spaces matter

For many people, emergency departments are seen as the only option when experiencing suicidal crisis.

Yet evidence shows that busy, overstimulating environments, long wait times and limited opportunities for meaningful connection can add to a person’s distress rather than ease it. Australia’s mental health and suicide prevention system needs more options that offer compassion, dignity and human connection.

Safe Spaces are designed to do exactly that.

These welcoming, peer-led services provide immediate support in calm, non-clinical environments where people can take a breath, make sense of what they’re experiencing and explore their options for support.

People can access emotional support, coping strategies, safety planning and connections to additional services – all while maintaining a sense of dignity and choice.

Peer workers draw on their own lived experience of distress, adversity and service use, or of supporting someone through these experiences.

This lived experience creates opportunities for connection that foster understanding, empathy and hope, helping people feel less alone.

According to Zoe Locke, Peer Lead at Strathpine Safe Space, that sense of connection can be transformative.

‘There can be something incredibly powerful about feeling understood by someone who doesn’t need you to explain every part of your experience.’

Zoe says the environment itself plays an important role in helping people feel safe and supported.

‘Clinical environments can sometimes feel intimidating or disconnecting, particularly for people who have had negative experiences with healthcare or other institutions.

‘Non-clinical spaces help us connect to what it means to be human, supporting people to feel safe and a sense of belonging.’

She says guests have described the space as feeling like ‘a warm hug’, a place where they can feel held during a difficult time.

We believe every person experiencing distress deserves timely support, genuine choice, compassionate and non-judgemental care, and access to environments that prioritise connection over assessment.

That’s why our new position statement calls for:

• More peer-led Safe Spaces and Safe Havens across Australia
• Safe Spaces that are easy to access, without referral requirements
• Long-term investment and workforce development
• Lived experience leadership at the centre of design, governance and delivery
• Stronger connections between Safe Spaces, aftercare and local community supports

We know it works. Research has shown 86% of guests within the Safe Space network in Queensland experienced a reduction in distress. Safe Spaces were found to ‘have played a key role in suicide prevention’, with many guests describing the support as lifesaving (Brisbane North Primary Health Network, 2024).

As Zoe reflects:

‘A sense of safety, trust and hope grows through human connection, being alongside someone as they navigate some of the most difficult moments of their life. It can mean holding hope for someone while they reconnect with their own hope.’

This World Suicide Prevention Day, we’re reminded that suicide prevention starts with connection.

By investing in peer-led Safe Spaces, we can help ensure more people have somewhere to turn when they need support, understanding and hope.