Focusing on the people at the heart of the issue
‘More than Safety’: Persons with lived experience are central to our vision as we support organisations in thinking beyond their safety goals and aiming toward health and recovery.
The SafeSide Prevention Alcohol & Other Drugs (AOD) Program is the culmination of a collaboration with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Suicide Collaborative and COORDINARE—South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network. This collaboration aimed to unite the AOD workforce around a common language and map of best practice. This co-design project to customise the SafeSide Program was driven from start to finish by individuals with lived experience, with members of the AOD workforce also playing a central role throughout.
What is Lived Experience?
A lived experience of suicide involves experience of having suicidal thoughts, surviving a suicide attempt, supporting a loved one through a suicidal crisis, or being bereaved by suicide (Roses in the Ocean).
Ethical and effective suicide prevention requires integrating the insights of people with lived and living experiences of mental health and suicide and of those who support them. At SafeSide, one of our core values is “better together”. When considering engaging Lived Experience expertise, it is important to remember that people with lived experience are an equal part of the team and not an afterthought.
Pictured: Neil Fraser, lived experience contributor to the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program.
SafeSide’s Lived Experience Faculty
Kristina Zurich
A gifted teacher dedicated to helping people see the many reasons they have for living. She keeps the team thinking about what patients experience in the health and behavioral health care system.
Read more about Kristina's story.
Mel Clark
Mel brings compassion, empathy, and determination to her work, striving to provide hope for others. As a long-time carer for her brother and a survivor of Adverse Childhood Experiences, she draws on her lived experience to highlight the importance of family, wellbeing, justice, healing, and recovery. Download her Note Cards here.
Sam Fewings
Sam spent twenty years working in Human Resources and Insurance before dedicating himself to suicide prevention as an advisor and facilitator. Sam has lived experience of suicide and is passionate about stigma reduction and giving a voice to others with lived experience.
Jack Stem
Jack is a Project Manager at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Nursing. Jack is in recovery from opioid use disorder (29 years on March 28, 2024), bringing his own experience with the disease of substance use disorder to bear on his work. Since entering recovery, Jack has dedicated his professional life to helping others with this disease.
SafeSide engages a team of people worldwide who have lived experience and suicide prevention experts, clinicians, researchers, and change management professionals. All SafeSide educational programs are co-led by clinical and lived experience expertise.
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Dive into evidence showcasing how and why lived experience is so critical to the mission of suicide prevention, and some of the stories behind our programs and offerings.
