The rise of non-clinical, community-led safe spaces: how lived experience is reshaping suicide prevention

With the emergence of the non-clinical, community-led safe spaces model, Australia’s approach to suicide prevention is changing.

For decades, suicide prevention has largely sat within the clinical mental health system. Hospitals, crisis services and mental health professionals play a vital and irreplaceable role. But as our understanding of suicide deepens, so too does the recognition that no single part of the system can meet every need.

Suicide remains one of Australia’s most pressing public health challenges. Each year thousands of lives are lost, and many more people experience suicidal distress. Behind those numbers are families, friends and communities navigating grief and uncertainty.

Despite significant investment in mental health services, many people still struggle to find the right support when they need it most. For some, hospital EDs or clinical crisis services can feel overwhelming, inaccessible or simply not what is actually going to help them when they reach out for support.

What we are increasingly recognising is that effective suicide prevention requires a broader ecosystem of support — one that extends beyond clinical care and into communities themselves.

Across Australia, communities are beginning to explore new models that offer compassionate, accessible alternatives during moments of distress, including the emergence of community-led safe spaces.

A different way to support people in distress

The community-led safe spaces model offers something simple, but powerful: a place where people can walk in and be met with warmth, understanding and connection. They are non-clinical environments where people can reliably access support from trained volunteers who themselves have a lived experience of suicide. These volunteers are present during regular opening hours, creating a consistent and welcoming space for people who need support.

The approach is intentionally different from traditional crisis responses. Community-led safe spaces operate on a ‘no wrong door’ philosophy. There are no long waiting times, no clinical assessments to navigate before being heard and no expectation that someone must be in an acute crisis to access support.

Instead, the focus is on listening, connection and peer support. For someone experiencing distress, the opportunity to sit down with another person who understands what suicidal thoughts can feel like can be incredibly meaningful. These conversations are not about diagnosis or treatment. They are about being heard, feeling safe and reconnecting with a sense of feeling understood and not alone.

Importantly, community-led safe spaces offer the opportunity for early intervention. They provide support before distress escalates into a crisis that may require emergency care. Across Australia and internationally, these models are increasingly recognised as an important complement to traditional mental health and suicide prevention services.

Why lived experience must lead innovation

One of the defining features of community-led safe spaces is that they are co-designed and delivered by people with lived experience of suicidal distress in each individual community where they operate, so they fit the needs of each local community.

People who have navigated suicidal thoughts themselves bring a depth of insight that cannot be replicated through theory alone. They understand what it feels like to reach a point of despair, and they also understand what kinds of support can make a difference in those moments.

This perspective helps shape environments where people feel understood rather than judged. When someone enters a community-led safe space, they are entering a space shaped by people who have walked similar paths.

That lived experience leadership is fundamental to how these services operate. It challenges longstanding assumptions about who holds expertise in suicide prevention and recognises that those closest to the issue must be central to shaping solutions.

A model gaining momentum

The growth of safe spaces across Australia reflects a growing recognition of the value of community-led alternatives. Recently, six new community-led safe spaces have been established across the country, including Australia’s first mobile service. This innovation expands support to communities that may otherwise have limited access to services.

With these additions, Australia will soon have 19 community-led safe spaces operating nationally. This expansion reflects growing confidence from governments, communities and service providers in the role these models can play. It also signals strong demand for accessible, warm, non-clinical options during moments of distress.

At the community level, these spaces are helping to reshape how suicide prevention is understood. By encouraging communities to have ownership in supporting their own — and establishing local-led sustainable groups to oversee this valuable work — we can demonstrate that support does not always have to begin with a clinical intervention. Sometimes it begins with a conversation and a person willing to listen.

As these models continue to develop, there is also an opportunity to embed them more clearly within the broader framework of services supported through the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement.¹

Rethinking how we measure impact

As new models emerge, we must also evolve how we measure success as traditional clinical metrics alone cannot capture the full value of community-led supports like this. The impact of these spaces often lies in moments that are difficult to quantify.

A person feeling heard for the first time. Someone choosing to seek support earlier rather than waiting until they reach a crisis point. A renewed sense of connection to community. These positive impacts are challenging to convert into statistics. Outcomes may include people feeling supported during moments of distress, reduced reliance on EDs, earlier access to support and stronger links to ongoing services.

Building an evidence base for these models remains essential, but measurement approaches must reflect the unique nature of peer-based, lived experience-led support. If we rely only on traditional clinical indicators, we risk overlooking the very things that make these models effective.

Scaling what works

The expansion of community-led safe spaces across Australia demonstrates what is possible when communities, governments and lived experience leaders and community members work together. These models remind us that suicide prevention is not solely a medical challenge, it is also a human one.

Connection, compassion and community-based support must be part of the response. As Australia continues to strengthen its national approach to suicide prevention, there is a clear opportunity to invest more deeply in models that bring lived experience of suicide to the centre.

Community-led safe spaces are not designed to replace clinical services. Rather, they complement them and offer another pathway for people to access support in ways that feel safe, respectful and accessible.

For many people, that difference can be life-changing — and sometimes even life-saving.

If you are affected by any of the issues discussed in this article, Lifeline has a 24/7 crisis support service that can help. Please call 13 11 14.

^{1. The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement. Federal Financial Relations. Accessed 19 June, 2026. https://federalfinancialrelations.gov.au/agreements/mental-health-suicide-prevention-agreement}

*Lani Wards is General Manager Service Delivery at Roses in the Ocean.

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