Left Behind by Suicide Support Group

Your decision to attend:

The action of attending support groups can be a battle in itself, and showing up is a major step of many on this journey. Everyone in this room has something to be proud of themselves for. Many people grieve differently, please feel free to ask questions, share personal experiences, or just listen. If you wish to just listen, feel free to pass.

Best using the group:

Left Behind by Suicide is an open support group, which means we encourage you to attend whenever it feels right to you, as frequent as you’d like, and as often as you find that it seems to help you. Usually it will take a few meetings to learn how to apply or incorporate the group into your other resources. We invite you to share about what you’d like from the group and any topics you’d like to discuss.

Safe environment and confidentiality:

This group is a safe space for all to attend regardless of race, religion, gender, and identity. We leave all discrimination, comparisons, criticism, and judgement behind us when we enter this building, making it safe for us to ask for help and share our experiences. This includes not challenging other’s experiences, beliefs, and journeys. Information about other participants and their experiences do not leave this room to ensure safety and comfort for those sharing.

Sensitivity:

We are all attending this group with the same goal of helping each other and ourselves through this journey of grief. We are all at different stages of our journeys, and we want to ensure we are sensitive and inclusive of other’s needs. This means we will make a concentrated effort to the topic of suicide and its related issues.

Additionally, it may be traumatic for some to hear certain events, we ask that any details pertaining to specifics of your loved one’s death be shared privately with one of our facilitators. Please reach out to us after the group.

Non-denominational:

Everyone has their own belief system. In order to respect this, we will refrain from speaking about religion except in a general way.

Peer education and support:

This group is based on supporting and learning from one another and our experiences. This group is lead and attended by survivors of losing a loved one to suicide. We are not trained counsellors, nor are there any experts, and what we all offer comes only from our personal experiences, we are all continually trying to heal and progress in our own journey.

One of many tools:

The group is not going to be a simple, instant fix, nor will it be the only tool you need to walk this journey. We ask that you attend the group in addition to your daily self-care routine, along with other methods such as grief counselling, reading, exercise, etc.

Patience and gentleness:

Each group meeting is but one page in a long book. Be patient with yourself as you navigate the path of self-discovery, with all of its hills and valleys. There is no time limit for grieving, and it’s often slow and uneven. It’s important to be mindful and patient with ourselves and give ourselves credit for how far we’ve come - it’s often farther than we think.

Respect of time:

This group is a place for all to be heard and respected. As such, we ask that we all respect each other's time. The meeting starts at 7:30pm, please arrive on time or let our facilitators know you’ll be late. We meet until 9:30pm or just before to allow people time to get home before it’s too late. Please stay the whole meeting unless there is an urgent situation you can inform the facilitators of.

Conflicts and concerns:

We recognize everyone has different situations, challenges, and views. Sometimes this may interfere with the interactions of group members. We ask you to bring forward any concerns or conflicts you’d like addressed with the facilitators as soon as you’re able to.