Impact on exposure to suicide for firefighters

Tara Lal is a professional firefighter with Fire & Rescue NSW and a PhD candidate at the University of New England. Her research focusses on understanding the impact of exposure to suicide on firefighters. She is the author of ‘Standing on my brothers’ shoulders – Making peace with grief and suicide’ which tracks her own journey through bereavement by suicide and has been translated into French and Mandarin and published internationally. Tara is a peer support officer for the Fire & Rescue NSW critical incident support team and has managed the organisations psychological wellbeing program. She is also a mental health first aid instructor and lived experience speaker for Beyond Blue. Tara has worked with researchers at the Black Dog Institute to develop programs aimed at building resilience and reducing the impact of trauma on firefighters’ mental health. She is currently working to build collaborative partnerships to develop a suicide preparedness, prevention and postvention program for firefighters based on her research findings. She is the recipient of the Australian Rotary Health emergency services PhD Scholarship.