About Eclipse
Eclipse is a support after suicide psychoeducational program that is available for anyone who has attempted to take their life, regardless of whether they were admitted to hospital and no matter how long ago their attempt was. Within the Australian suicide prevention landscape Eclipse offers a much-needed longer-term aftercare support option for suicide attempt survivors.
The Eclipse Support After Suicide program has been minimally adapted for the Australian context from the original survivors of Suicide Attempts program, designed by Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services USA (Sinwelski et al., 2014). Minor changes to accommodate cultural differences and unique implementation environment have been co-designed by centres in the Lifeline network with the support of Lifeline Australia.
As with the Survivors of Suicide Attempts program, the Eclipse program consists of support groups and resources which focus on short term goals as an important component of reducing internalised stigma. Importantly, the groups provide a supportive experience of reaching out, opening up and encouraging connection.
Importantly, the Eclipse group is facilitated by two facilitators; one with professional suicide prevention training, and the other a trained peer worker with lived experience of suicide. Together, Lifeline Australia and the Lifeline network have worked to establish quality assurance protocols including accredited training for program facilitators.
Eclipse is complementary to other aftercare services available in Australia, providing care for people who are unable/unwilling to access other aftercare services or who require a continuation of care over the longer-term.
In this way, Eclipse forms an essential part of a truly universal aftercare system, helping to provide people with a genuine pathway from crisis to coping.
Evaluation
Commencing in 2016, UNE has completed an mixed-methods evaluation of the eight-week attempted suicide support group program across several NSW locations, including both face-to-face and online modalities.
The evaluation embedded four collaborative research processes (co-ideation, co-design, co-production and co-evaluation) into the delivery of the Eclipse program. All stakeholders (non-research staff and research staff) participated in each of these four collaborative processes with group facilitators responsible for the ongoing collection of data.
Recent publications
Published paper: A psychoeducational support group intervention for people who have attempted suicide: An open trial with promising preliminary findings
Maple, M., Wayland, S., Pearce, T., Sanford, R., & Bhullar, N. (2022). A Psychoeducational Support Group Intervention for People Who Have Attempted Suicide: An Open Trial with Promising Preliminary Findings. Community Mental Health Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-022-00978-y
- This study presents preliminary findings from an open trial of Eclipse, an 8-week closed, psychoeducational group for people who have attempted suicide. It examined the effectiveness of the Eclipse program in reducing suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and increasing resilience and help-seeking.
- Results showed statistically significant improvements in depressive symptoms, perceived burdensomeness, resilience and helpseeking from baseline (T1) to immediate post-test (T2), and in perceived burdensomeness from T1 to 1-month follow-up (T3). A pervasiveness analysis showed that over half of the participants reported improvements in key study outcomes as a result of participating in the Eclipse group.
- Psychoeducational support groups could provide broad application for those who have previously attempted suicide in decreasing severity of suicidal thinking by reductions in depressive symptoms, burdensomeness, and thwarted belongingness.