Compassionate Foundations: Suicide prevention capability suite
Compassionate Foundations is a foundational suicide prevention capability suite, designed to support positive human-to-human interactions that promote connection and understanding.
The purpose of the suite is to help participants respond early and before a person’s experience leads them to become distressed and/or suicidal. These skills include being compassionate, being aware of the needs of people in vulnerable situations, understanding why people may become distressed, and knowing how to have a helpful and safe conversation with someone who may be showing early signs of distress.
This content has been provided by the APS Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit, Australian Public Service Commission.
Participant benefits
- Describe their role in suicide prevention.
- Describe how extreme stress and adversity impacts individuals and the community.
- Use trauma-informed skills.
- Use compassion and self-compassion skills.
- Use look, listen and link skills to support someone in distress.
- Describe the factors that lead someone to suicidal distress.
- Outline the importance of self-care.
Suitable for
APS 1 – SES Band 3
Craft and User level
This program aligns with Supporting APS People at the Foundation level.
Related topics
Health and wellbeing; Values; Relationships; Leading in the APS; Communication; Working in teams.

Compassionate Foundations received the Gold LearnX Award for Best eLearning Project – Widespread eLearning adopter at the 2022 LearnX Summit and Awards Show. This award focuses on an eLearning project that’s been implemented enterprise-wide to train and support talent development.