Twenty years of standing between people and the worst moment of their lives.

What we do

ASPF provides three things: a comprehensive, clinically reviewed body of information on suicide prevention and mental illness; a network of websites that carry that information to the communities who need it most; and programmes that equip families, friends and colleagues with the words that help someone in crisis.

Our core message is simple, and it has not changed in twenty years: you would never advise a friend to die. Tell yourself what you'd tell a friend.

Clinical leadership

The information on this site is written and reviewed by clinicians with decades of direct practice in psychiatry, depression, and suicide prevention. Our founder and clinical lead has treated patients with depressive illness since long before "mental health" became a public conversation, and still does. The result is a library that reads like a GP who trusts you with the full picture — not one that hedges for legal comfort.

Why we are independent

We are non-government and privately funded. This means our advice answers to evidence alone — never to funders, never to politics, never to the shifting fashions of public health messaging. It also means our work depends on donations from people who believe, as we do, that no one in Australia should face their darkest moment alone.

Our community approach

Most people in crisis speak to a friend, a family member, or a colleague before they speak to a professional. This is the central insight of our community-assisted suicide prevention model: the bystander is the first responder, and the bystander needs the right words.

Our programmes put those words into the hands of anyone who might need them — through our dial-in telephone service, our web network, and the Prevent A Suicide app.

Where we came from

ASPF grew out of a nationwide dial-in recorded telephone service: a twelve-minute recorded message that gave someone in crisis comfort, direction, a moment to reflect, and an alternative. That service ran for decades before the web existed. It is still running today — and the websites, the apps, and the programmes we run now are all extensions of the same original idea: be there when someone picks up the phone, so that something is said back.

Support our work

ASPF is a registered not-for-profit organisation. Every dollar donated goes into producing and distributing the information and programmes that help Australians survive the hardest hours of their lives. If you would like to support the work, please get in touch.

Contact us

For media enquiries, partnership opportunities, or clinical questions about our materials, contact us through the details below.