Suicide Grief: News & Comment

Grief after Suicide: Understanding the Consequences and Caring for the Survivors, edited by John R. Jordan and John L. McIntosh, is a groundbreaking book featuring in-depth coverage of every aspect of suicide grief support. The book's goals, according to its editors,

are to establish not only what is known about suicide survivors and postvention efforts to assist them, but also to draw attention to vital information that is not known but would help us to better understand and assist survivors of suicide ... [including] recommendations for future research and postvention goals for the future.

The editors and more than 40 contributors to the book's chapters solidly accomplish those goals, covering in-depth and comprehensively the most up-to-date information about an impressive range of topics of interest to people working with the suicide bereaved. The editors begin by asking and attempting to answer several fundamental questions:

• The title of Chapter One asks: "Why study survivors of suicide loss?" And the editors answer: Because "considerable and compelling evidence now shows that exposure to suicide carries with it the risk ... [of] the elevated likelihood for suicide in a person exposed to the suicide of another individual ... [and because] there is also evidence of other negative psychological, physical, and social consequences of exposure to suicide."
• The title of Chapter Two poses this question: "Is suicide bereavement different?" Answer: "Recent research and theoretical advances in thanatology have led us toward what we believe is a more nuanced and satisfying way to address this issue. In short, we propose that the correct answer to the question should be 'it all depends on what aspect of the bereavement experience is being studied.'" And the editors go on to propose a view that emphasizes, at the same time, not only the differences among bereavement after all types of fatalities but also the similarities among people's grief experiences regardless of the mode of death, which indeed is a useful way, practically speaking, to approach assisting the suicide bereaved.

Survivors of suicide loss might want to visit the Lifeline Gallery, where they can listen to everyday people's stories about coping after suicide -- as well as tell their own story of being bereaved by suicide.

• Stories in the "Loss" section are for anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide.
• Stories in the "Turning Points" section are for people who have survived a suicide attempt or have struggled with thoughts of suicide.
• Stories in the "Helpers" section are for caregivers, advocates, or supporters working on behalf of suicide prevention.

When it was launched in 2008, the Lifeline Gallery was described in a Los Angeles Times health blog as a place where...

Yesterday in a post on her blog -- "The Singing Pen of Dr. Jen" -- Jennifer Middleton points readers to a free webinar series on physician suicide from the American Medical Association. Middleton writes, "I wish that I didn't have a reason to participate in this webinar, but a few years ago I lost a friend and physician colleague to suicide."

She was asked to participate in one of the AMA webinars because of an essay she wrote for Annals of Family Medicine, "Today I'm Grieving a Physician Suicide," in which she addresses her colleague directly:

Why didn’t you ask your physician colleagues for help? Why did you hide your depression from us? Did I, as your colleague and friend, fail you? These questions circle relentlessly through my mind. I need to understand, need somehow for this all to make sense.

Caregivers regularly use the term empowerment to describe an outcome they'd like to see realized by people whom they are assisting. Because usage of the term is widespread -- even as the word itself may mean different things to different people -- we are outlining, for the consideration and comment of our readers, key points from two articles on empowerment from two different perspectives.

• One is from a scholarly article by Mann Hyung Hur from the Journal of Community Psychology and titled "Empowerment in Terms of Theoretical Perspectives: Exploring a Typology of the Process and Components across Disciplines."
• The other is from a longtime mental-health consumer advocate, the late Judi Chamberlin, whose essay "A Working Definition of Empowerment" is available from the National Empowerment Center.

In an audio presentation for Psychiatric Times, Katherine Shear, an expert on complicated grief, delivers a talk on the topic that provides listeners with a concise and comprehensive primer. She gives -- in about 15 minutes -- a complete overview of the malady, noting that it affects as many as 10% of bereaved people. Shear begins by characterizing grief -- and even intense grief reactions -- as a normal response to the death of someone with whom the bereaved person has a close relationship, then differentiates complicated grief by clearly summarizing its causes, symptoms, assessment, and treatment.

• How much are they having trouble accepting the death of this person?
• How much does grief still interfere with their life?
• How much are they having images or thoughts about the person who died? These thoughts are often intrusive kinds of thoughts.
• Are there things they used to do when this person was alive that they don't feel comfortable doing anymore, that they avoid? [Or are they] avoiding looking at pictures of the person or talking about the person?
• How much are they feeling cut off or distant from other people, even people they generally feel close to, like family or friends? Do they have intense feelings of loneliness even when they're with  people who they're close to?