When a person is experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviour, it can be a very worrying time for their family, carers and supporters. Family, carers and supporters who are supporting somebody experiencing suicidal thoughts and/or behaviour benefit from speaking with people who have had a similar experience.
Our Peer CARE Companion Warmline (family, carers & supporters) is a suicide prevention ‘warmline’ call-back service which has been created by Roses in the Ocean to provide a safe place for people in Victoria with a lived experience of supporting someone with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviour to connect with others with a similar lived experience of suicide – our Peer CARE Companions.
The service provides people with an opportunity to connect, be heard, and for their distress to be compassionately explored and understood by another person through the mutual understanding that comes with meaningful shared experience. This service may assist in providing relief from emotional distress, explore coping strategies, assistance navigating to find additional online resources and/or information.
*We also provide support for family, carers & supporters nationally, but in Victoria you will be connected with a Victorian-based Peer CARE Companion.
National Peer CARE Companion Warmline
***This is NOT a crisis line. If you are in crisis or someone you are with is in crisis, you will find a number of crisis support lines on our ‘I need help now’ page, along with other support services that may suit you better.
For those under 18, please call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. If your life or the life of someone you are with is in danger, please call emergency services on 000.***
Peer CARE Companions do not provide counselling or advice.
*Please note that this is an interim service. A co-design process is underway to establish the permanent call-back service.
Warmline Call Request Form
We are now taking requests for a call-back by one of our Peer CARE Companions through an online form. If you would prefer to not leave a voicemail, this option may suit your needs better!
Simply click below to complete the online request form.
Frequently asked questions
The phone number to call the Peer CARE Companion Warmline (family, carers & supporters) is 1800 77 7337.
The Peer CARE Companion Warmline (family, carers & supporters) is open to all people who reside in Victoria who have experience supporting someone with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviour. Unfortunately we cannot return calls outside of Australia. Children (those below the age of 18) are best to contact a youth specific service such as Kids Helpline on: 1800 55 1800 or ReachOut.
You can call whenever you want or need to. The line is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and a Peer CARE Companion will return your call within 48 hours.
- The call is an automated recorded message service made by a member of our team. This means that when you call you will be asked to leave a message with some specific details (see ‘What information do I leave in the message?’ below).
- Once you have left your message, an email is automatically generated to our Peer CARE Companion Coordinator. The email will automatically include the phone number that you called from, so you do not need to leave your number unless you wish to be called-back on a different number.
- Our Peer CARE Companion Coordinator will allocate a Peer CARE Companion best suited to your request.
- The Peer CARE Companion will call you back within 48 hours to arrange/confirm a mutual time for you to have a conversation.
- Your name
- Your postcode
- Your preferred phone contact number if different from the number you dialled in on – the number you dialled in on is recorded automatically for us to call-back.
- The nature of lived experience you would like the Peer CARE Companion to have – for example, cared for someone through crisis.
Example: “Hi, I’m Rob and I live in Carlton, postcode 3053. I’m caring for my teenager, he has suicidal thoughts, and it would be good to speak with another parent or carer that has been through this. Thank you.”
When calling from a landline, the call to the messaging service is free. When calling from your mobile, there may be a charge – this depends on your provider. Remember that you will only be calling to leave a message on this number, therefore the length of the call will not be very long. When our Peer CARE Companion calls you back, there will be no cost to you talking with them as they will be calling from a private number.
Only the message that you leave when you initially call the service will be recorded. When our Peer CARE Companion calls you back, it will be a private conversation between you both. For further information, please see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for the Peer CARE Companion Warmline (family, carers & supporters).
Yes, your conversation with a Peer CARE Companion is highly confidential. However, in exceptional cases where our Peer CARE Companion believes that an individual may cause immediate harm to themselves or others, that confidentiality may be broken in order to try and help you connect with further support. The Peer CARE Companion will discuss this with you: Why they are breaking the confidence; Who they will tell; What they will tell them; What they are likely to do with the information; and what will happen next.
For further information, please see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for the Peer CARE Companion Warmline (family, carers & supporters).
When wanting to speak to a Peer CARE Companion, you will always need to go through the Warmline first. When the Peer CARE Companion calls you, their phone number will show as a landline number. The number will not be available to call on auto-call-back and the Peer CARE Companion cannot give out their number. It’s important that we direct all calls this way through the Warmline (1800 77 7337) so that everyone is protected, and privacy and confidentiality maintained. It also helps us to track the service that we are providing and evaluate the quality of that service, in order to maintain the best support for people that contact us. If you need to contact us again, call the Warmline (family, carers & supporters) anytime you need.
At the end of the call, the Peer CARE Companion may ask you if they could collect some information about you to add to our call log. This will include asking for your name, age, sex or self-identification, (LGBTIQA+, or Cultural & Linguistically Diversity). The Peer CARE Companion will explain that we are collecting this information to better understand the demographics of people calling in order to improve the service in the future. Of course, you have every right not to provide this information and we respect your privacy.
We invite you to call the Warmline (family, carers & supporters) as often as you need. We may seek your feedback on the service via email.
We will do our best to connect you with the same person, but we can’t guarantee their availability.
You will only be contacted by the Peer CARE Companion for each message that you leave on the Warmline answering service. They, and Roses in the Ocean, will not contact you for any other reason.
Of course, you can call as often as you need. We are here to listen.
If we miss you the first time, don’t worry. We will try to contact you three times.
You can find out all you need to know to become a Peer CARE Companion (family, carers & supporters), here.
By using Roses in the Ocean’s Peer CARE Companion Warmline service, you agree to the Terms of Use
Please click here for our Privacy Policy.
For further information about the service, please contact us at [email protected]
For more information about your rights and our commitment to you, please review our Service Delivery Charter.
The Peer CARE Companion Warmline (family, carers & supporters) initiative is a collaboration with Victorian Department of Health.