How Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations Support Sorry Business

When Sorry Business begins, families often find themselves dealing with hospitals, coroners, funeral homes, and government agencies — institutions that operate on Western assumptions about family, grief, and decision-making. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) exist to bridge that gap, and they are one of the most underused resources available to First Nations families during bereavement.

Understanding what ACCHOs can do — and how to access them at the right time — can spare families hours of navigating systems that were not designed with their cultural needs in mind.

What ACCHOs Do During Sorry Business

ACCHOs are Aboriginal-governed, community-controlled primary health care services. There are over 140 across Australia, from major urban centres to remote communities. While they are known primarily for health care, their role extends into social and emotional wellbeing support, which becomes critical during bereavement.

During Sorry Business, an ACCHO can:

• Provide immediate grief and loss counselling through trained Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander counsellors who understand kinship grief, cultural obligations, and the specific emotional dynamics of Sorry Business
• Connect families with financial assistance — ACCHOs have established relationships with Land Councils, state funeral assistance programs, and Centrelink and can help navigate application processes quickly
• Coordinate transport and logistics — some ACCHOs have vehicles available for family transport or can facilitate access to programs like the NSW Aboriginal Funeral Transport Program
• Mediate with mainstream institutions when hospitals, funeral homes, or government agencies do not understand cultural protocols
• Provide referrals to Aboriginal Legal Services when disputes arise about wills, burial rights, or kinship authority

Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officers

When a death occurs in a hospital or clinical setting, the Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer (ALHO) is the most important point of contact for the family. Major hospitals across Australia employ ALHOs specifically to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families.

The ALHO's role during a death includes:

• Delivering the news through the correct kinship channels. It is culturally inappropriate in many communities for non-Indigenous clinical staff to directly inform the next of kin. The ALHO navigates the family's kinship hierarchy and ensures the news reaches the right elders first
• Advocating for cultural protocols in the clinical environment — ensuring the family has private time with the body, that gender-specific preparation rituals can be accommodated, and that staff understand name and image avoidance
• Coordinating with the morgue about extended body storage, family viewing arrangements, and the transfer process to the funeral director
• Connecting the family with bereavement support services, both through the hospital's own programs and through external ACCHO services

If the hospital does not have an ALHO on staff, ask whether they can arrange access to one through the local ACCHO or Aboriginal Medical Service.

Link-Up Services and Stolen Generations Families

For members of the Stolen Generations and their descendants, Sorry Business carries an additional layer of complexity. Family connections that were severed by forced removal may mean that relatives do not know each other, do not know their Country, or do not have the cultural knowledge to navigate traditional protocols.

Link-Up services operate in most states and territories to assist Stolen Generations members and their families with:

• Family tracing and reunification — connecting people with relatives they were separated from, which becomes especially urgent when a family member is dying or has died
• Returning to Country — helping people identify and travel to their ancestral Country for Sorry Business, even when they were removed as children and have never been to their Country as adults
• Cultural support and reconnection — providing guidance on cultural protocols for people who were raised outside their community and may not know what is expected of them during Sorry Business
• Emotional support — the intersection of intergenerational trauma from removal and acute grief from a current death creates compounded distress that requires specialised, culturally safe support

Crisis Support Lines

Three services specifically designed for or accessible to First Nations people during bereavement:

• 13YARN (13 92 76): a national 24/7 crisis support line staffed by trained Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis supporters. This is the most culturally appropriate first call for someone in acute distress during Sorry Business
• Lifeline (13 11 14): national general crisis support, available 24/7
• Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636): national mental health support

How to Access ACCHO Support

If you do not already have a relationship with your local ACCHO, the quickest path is through NACCHO (National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation), which maintains a directory of member services. Your local Land Council can also direct you to the nearest ACCHO.

Access ACCHO support as early as possible — ideally at the first sign that someone is entering palliative care, not after the death has occurred. Early engagement gives the ACCHO time to coordinate resources and connect you with services that become much harder to arrange under crisis timelines.

The Aboriginal Sorry Business Guide includes a complete directory of support services and a framework for coordinating between ACCHOs, hospitals, funeral directors, and financial assistance programs — so that families can focus on cultural obligations and grief instead of system navigation.