Workplace training
When grief shows up at work, your people don't need to be experts. They need to know what to do.
Grief First Aid is our flagship program: accredited, evidence-informed training that equips teams to recognise, respond to and support grief and loss at work with clarity, confidence and care.
The problem
Every year, hundreds of thousands of working Australians face significant loss, and most workplaces don't know how to respond.
Grief doesn't wait at the door. It shows up in performance, in absence, in the manager who avoids the conversation because they're afraid of saying the wrong thing. The cost is quiet but real: disengagement, turnover, and people who feel unseen at the hardest moment of their lives.
It doesn't have to be this way. The skills to respond well can be taught, and they're simpler than most people think.
Our approach
A simple, practical approach: Recognise → Respond → Refer
- 01
Recognise
Notice when a colleague is struggling with grief, loss or distress.
- 02
Respond
Know what to say (and what not to), how to offer support, and how to hold professional boundaries.
- 03
Refer
Understand where to point people for further help, including your EAP and professional services.
Your people become the confident, human first response. The rest of your support system works better because of it.
Why it works
Your EAP is a safety net. Training is what helps people reach it.
Most organisations already invest in an Employee Assistance Program, and then quietly watch how few people use it. The reason is rarely the EAP itself. It's that reaching out feels clinical, formal, or "for when things are really bad."
The everyday moments happen somewhere else: in the team, in the corridor, in the one-on-one with a manager who doesn't know whether to mention the loss. That's where trained people make the difference, and where Sunflower Collective focuses.
Grief First Aid works upstream. When a colleague is met well in the first conversation, fewer situations escalate into the kind of distress and psychological injury that formal intervention has to pick up later. And when someone does need more, your people are the confident voice that says, "have you thought about talking to someone? Here's how." More referrals reach your EAP, not fewer.
The business case
Four reasons this pays back.
Support people early
Skills that land in the first conversation, long before a situation becomes a crisis or a claim.
Protect your people
Reduce isolation, compassion fatigue and burnout, especially in high-exposure roles.
Strengthen what you already fund
Get more value from the EAP and support systems you already pay for.
Keep good people
A workplace that shows up in hard moments is one people stay with.
Aged care, healthcare, community organisations, and any team that encounters loss.
In-house or online, tailored to your team's context and sector.
Delivered by Linda Kilp, an accredited Grief First Aid instructor.
A clear note on scope.
Our training builds skills and confidence within your team. It is not counselling, crisis support, or a support line, and it is designed to complement, never replace, your Employee Assistance Program and professional mental health services. Participants are always given clear referral pathways to further help.