About

Our Why

Calm Conversations Save Lives

Suicide touches many of us and we are currently losing too many of our loved ones, colleagues and community members to suicide.

Our suicide programs aim to reduce suicide and its impact on individuals, families and communities. They achieve this through educating and empowering attendees to recognise and support those who have lost hope.

Each training program has been created by highly qualified experts in suicide prevention and intervention, mental health awareness and counselling skills training. Our trainers rely on evidence and lived experience.

We draw on the latest research and lived experiences to help our students facilitate meaningful and safe conversations.

View our courses and enrol to learn in person or online.

Our Mission:

Suicide Programs will deliver education to empower individuals and communities to understand, respond to and prevent suicide.

Melanie Schroder

Suicide Programs Director

Our Part

Suicide Awareness, Prevention And Intervention Training

Our organisation offers a range of programs suitable for Australians from all walks of life.

  • Every lesson is carefully crafted to inspire and retain engagement.
  • Lessons are based on evidence and lived-experience
  • Participants encounter captivating videos, audio, text, and interactive quizzes that reinforce key learning points
  • Each course provides an array of resources and reading materials that you can refer to at any time

Our training is recommended for mental health workers, counsellors or anybody who has a friend or family member who they feel concerned is at risk of suicide.

Our Values

Integrity

Suicide Programs is open and transparent in all that we do. We welcome feedback and collaboration.

Empowerment

We respect every person’s capacity to gain control over their own lives and achieve their goals.

Excellence

Our team acts with courage, is client / student focused, and continually works to improve ourselves and our services.

Community

By sharing knowledge and resources, we are creating a safe and responsive community for all.

Recover

We support every person’s journey to recover and uphold their right to personal autonomy & a meaningful life.

Diversity

All programs are written to meet cultural differences within our communities.

Our Directors

Meet the people behind Suicide Programs.

Melanie Schroder

Calm Director - Nationwide

Melanie has 25 years’ experience working across government, education, and community sector with a focus on mental health, suicide intervention / prevention and conflict resolution /peace building.

Melanie Schroder
Calm Director – Nationwide

Melanie has 25 years’ experience working across government, education, and community sector with a focus on mental health, suicide intervention / prevention and conflict resolution /peace building.

She has post graduate qualifications in counselling as well as mediation / conflict resolution and currently works with many universities and associations as an educator, counsellor, trainer, coach, and assessor.

Melanie’s professional aim is to make our communities suicide aware and more inclusive for all. Recognising the impact of conflict and the need to ensure the safety of our clients before, during and after a conflict resolution process, Melanie is focussed on supporting all to recognise signs of suicide ideation; know how to ask the question and then develop a meaningful safety plan; and or refer appropriately. She uses her lived experience and her professional learnings to ensure what is delivered is current, meaningful, and enabling.

Sandra Willie

Calm Director - Nationwide

Sandra is a qualified counsellor with extensive experience in the mental health sector as a caseworker, trainer of crisis workers, college educator and program developer.

Sandra Willie
Calm Director – Nationwide

Sandra is a qualified counsellor with extensive experience in the mental health sector as a caseworker, trainer of crisis workers, college educator and program developer.

Sandra’s family has experienced the loss of cherished loved ones to suicide, which became the driving force and passion to help others to prevent and minimise this type of devastating and tragic loss in their own circle of family and friends.

Sandra’s passion, fuelled by her lived experience is to provide professionally accredited and evidence-based programs that have proven to be effective in reducing the stigma of mental health and facilitate the movement towards zero suicide.

Committed to achieving maximum results, Sandra regards cultural differences, and the complexities of inclusion and transparency as vital in producing successful outcomes for participants.

Sandra is a director of Suicide Programs; the co-developer of the Calm Suicide awareness and intervention programs, a qualified Lifelines Trilogy trainer and a member of the Australian Counselling Association.