Suicide Grief: News & Comment

A recent Open to Hope Radio interview -- "Helping Families Deal with Suicide" -- features Diana Sands of the Bereaved by Suicide Centre for Intense Grief in Australia.

Sands suggests that "there is no one correct way" to talk children about suicide loss and that "it's a process, not an event."

This is a conversation you will have with your child for the rest of your life ... Research would suggest that it's important to provide honest, age-appropriate explanations about what has happened.

In "Studying the Positive Side of Trauma and Grief," Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Stacey Burling takes a look at a key concept that is currently getting a lot of attention in grief and trauma research. The concept is that, after a tragedy, "most people bounce back to baseline, and some emerge from disaster stronger and better, at least in some ways." Those who discover new, sometimes transformational, characteristics within themselves after a tragedy are experiencing "what psychologists call posttraumatic growth (PTG), the lesser-known sibling of post-traumatic stress disorder." 

The field of suicide bereavement support got a boost late last year with the publication of a groundbreaking book, Grief after Suicide: Understanding the Consequences and Caring for the Survivors, edited by John R. "Jack" Jordan and John McIntosh. Two recent interviews with Jordan offer a glimpse of the new book.

The need for best practices among Suicide Bereavement Support Groups (SBSG) has been highlighted at two recent national meetings, and there is a key resource on the topic, available from Lifeline Australia, that deserves consideration by SBSG facilitators everywhere: Towards Good Practice: Standards and Guidelines for Suicide Bereavement Support Groups.

Towards Good Practice ... [was] developed through wide consultation with people working with suicide bereavement support groups and with experts working in the field of Postvention ... [and] a separate literature review was undertaken ... The development of the Standards & Guidelines for SBSGs ... is based on existing research evidence and practice evidence available in the field (from the introduction to the companion book, Practice Handbook: Suicide Bereavement Support Group Facilitation).

These standards and guidelines (see the table of contents, below) are arguably the best starting place for discussions in the United States and elsewhere about improving the quality and effectiveness of mutual-help support groups for survivors of suicide loss.

Bonnie Carroll, founder of TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors), was recently featured in a Huffington Post Impact article, "Military Wife Provides Support to Families of the Fallen."

TAPS describes itself as

the 24/7 tragedy assistance resource for ANYONE who has suffered the loss of a military loved one, regardless of the relationship to the deceased or the circumstance of the death.

TAPS is also a leader in delivering services to people bereaved by suicide.