When someone close to you attempts suicide.

Navigating the
hospital system

Emergency response

After someone close to you attempts suicide, you will likely come into contact with the Emergency Services, or a Crisis Assessment Treatment Team (CATT), sometimes known as a Psychiatric Emergency Team (PET). You can read more about these teams at Health Direct.

It can be hard to understand the decisions the team makes. They may not be able to give you complex explanations in the moment, particularly if it’s a situation involving physical harm or unstable mental health where they have to act fast.

In crisis situations, ask for vital, practical information: will the person will be taken to hospital? Which hospital? Can you travel with them?

Emergency or crisis teams will prioritise physical safety and treatment of injuries over the person’s mental health at first.

Once that safety has been established, the person’s mental health can be assessed. This may happen in hospital or at home.

Assessment and admission to hospital

If the person is physically injured, they may be treated in the emergency department. Even if they aren’t physically hurt, they may still need to go to the emergency department to have their mental health assessed.

If health professionals believe they are a high risk to themselves or others, they might be admitted to a psychiatric ward. This might be in the same hospital or another facility.

They might instead be admitted to a general ward for further treatment. This ward may or may not include psychiatric care services.

If they don’t need to be admitted to hospital, they may be discharged and referred to community support services.

In making assessments, health professionals look for high-risk factors like:

• having current, ongoing thoughts or plans of wanting to die
• the reasons for the person's suicidal thoughts or actions
• how much support the person has at home and in the community.

The person’s own feelings about being admitted are treated seriously, but health professionals can admit someone against their will. This takes away their right to make decisions about their mental health care. This decision is never made lightly and can only be made if the person is judged unable to keep themselves safe, or is a risk to others.

There are strict legal requirements to make someone an involuntary patient. See our factsheet on Involuntary treatment.

You can read more about risk factors on the Victorian and NSW Department of Health websites.

You may have the choice to use public health care (covered by Medicare) or private psychiatric care. Check whether the person you’re caring for has private health insurance, and if you can, ask if they want to use it.

Asking questions

If you have questions about the care the person will receive in hospital, ask to speak to:

• the nursing unit manager
• the on-call social worker
• a patient liaison (if the hospital has one)
• a carer consultant (if the hospital has one).

They can answer your questions while respecting the privacy and rights of the person you care about.

Read more about patient and carer rights around information sharing.

Who does what?

There are often many different people involved in caring for people in hospital.

It can be hard to understand who is doing what and why. When you’re stressed and tired, it’s harder to make sense of information and remember things.

You can always ask questions, even if you feel like you’re repeating yourself.

Here are some of the professionals you may encounter, what they do and when you are likely to become involved.

Crisis response

Immediately after a suicide attempt, or when a person is at immediate risk:

• Police are often the first on the scene when there’s a crisis, especially if there is a risk of self-harm or harm to others.
• Ambulance paramedics attend reported suicide attempts to take care of the person’s physical needs and to transport them to the emergency department if necessary.
• Firefighters may also be called to a suicide attempt.
• CATT/PET are crisis teams that can be contacted through your closest major hospital and will help over the phone or in person.

Emergency department

Once you reach the hospital:

• Triage nurses assess everyone arriving at the emergency department and decide the order they will be seen in. They will use a mental health triage tool to assess the person’s immediate needs.
• Doctors and nurses provide physical treatment.
• Psychiatrists are responsible for conducting a detailed mental health assessment and making decisions about the person’s treatment.
• Social workers, psychologists or mental health nurses provide mental health care and support and can also be involved in the decisions about the person’s care.

Hospital wards

If the person you care for is admitted to a hospital ward:

• Occupational therapists help people manage their everyday activities, like getting dressed.
• Physiotherapists treat muscular pain or problems with movement.
• Psychiatrists assess the person’s mental health and prescribe medication.
• Social workers, psychologists and mental health nurses provide mental health care and support.

What do I need to
know right now?

During and immediately after the suicide attempt, it’s normal to want to gather as much information as possible, to help the person you care about and ease your worries.

‘So I went home overnight and came back the following morning, and that was the day it really hit badly. I was a bit of a mess, and I would have to say, I’ve never felt so alone. I wanted to chat.’

Here are some questions you can ask the doctors, nurses, nursing unit managers and social workers:

Write down some information about the person you care about, so you have their details at hand when you’re asked. Summarise the person's past mental health needs, if you know them. You could also describe:

• what you think might have caused them to attempt suicide
• the support they currently have at home
• what you believe might help them right now.

You may need to tell the same story to multiple people, so having up-to-date information written down can make this easier, and give your mind a break from trying to think and remember.

Identifying your
supports

When someone close to you has attempted suicide, it's hard to think about your own needs. But you'll be much better able to support them if you're also taking care of yourself.

Here are some things to bear in mind:

People might feel I don’t really know what to do or maybe I’m completely out of my depths here. And I don’t think you do have to have the answers. I think a lot of the time it’s just being able to listen to somebody.