Support after a suicide on campus

RELATED Q&A’S

• Feeling suicidal…Help!
  • This question is relevant because it offers resources for those who feel suicidal. This could be helpful for anyone who may be feeling suicidal themselves after experiencing a campus suicide. It could also be helpful for anyone who is looking to support someone else in their life experiencing similar feelings.
• No purpose in life
  • While this question does not specifically use the word suicide, there are warning signs that are always best caught early. “No purpose in life” may resonate more with some than “feeling suicidal”, but both questions offer similar resources.
• Violence on campus
  • Needing support after an act of violence on campus is similar to needing support after a campus suicide. This answer provides links to resources Columbia offers that could be just as useful for anyone reading about suicide.
• Roommate attempted suicide, now wants to move back in
  • This question is particularly relevant because it’s directly from someone who experienced someone other than themselves attempting suicide, and they would definitely benefit from the advice offered in the present question.

SOURCE 1: Loss Survivors

• This source gives tips on what individuals can do for themselves when they’ve lost a loved one to suicide.
• These tips include finding a support group, being patient with their own healing process, and asking for help.
• In terms of what would be most applicable to a student getting support after a suicide on campus, it appears that looking for a support group is the most direct, action-oriented piece of advice.

SOURCE 2: Taking Care of Yourself

• This source provides a list of emotions a person may feel after a suicide loss, what symptoms or reactions they may experience if they were one of the witnesses of the suicide or found the body, and what they can do to take care of themselves.
• The tips include speaking to other suicide loss survivors, going to a support group, seeking professional mental health help, and more.
• The most action-oriented piece of advice from this source is encouraging students to speak to each other how they feel about the suicide loss, or at least to speak to those who want to speak about the suicide loss. This can be done by seeking support groups.
• This source also connects to an online support group.

SOURCE 3: Healing Conversations

• Healing Conversations is a program that connects individuals to volunteers who are trained to speak with those who have lost someone to suicide. They are available in person, on the phone, or by video chat.
• This source provides an email through which individuals can contact to set up these conversations and connections.
• This source is probably one of the most useful ones to directly share with readers.

SOURCE 4: Suicide Support Groups

• This source contains a directory of support groups. Readers can use this source to look for support groups near them in the United States.
• The directory information includes: name of the organization that runs the support group, contact details (location, phone number, e-mail), meeting frequency/time, and fees. Some groups are free, some are not.
• This source is probably one of the most useful ones to directly share with readers.

SOURCE 5: After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools

• This is a handbook that includes tips for schools on how to manage the aftermath of a campus suicide. There are also tips for parents and communities.
• This include tips on “crisis response” (e.g. confirming facts about the incident to share the news after consulting the parents), “helping students cope” (encouraging support groups, reaching out to other parents), “working with the community” (including the coroner/medical examiner, police department, local government, funeral director, faith community leaders, mental health care professionals/staff, building a community coalition focused on suicide prevention), “working with the media”, “memorialization”, “social media”, “suicide contagion” (identifying other students who may be at risk for suicide, watching out for multiple suicides), and more.
  • Suicide contagion is the pattern of suicides following one after another. Sometimes, one suicide will “inspire” others who are suicidal as well to take action.

SOURCE 6: POSTVENTION: A Guide for Response to Suicide on College Campuses

• This is a handbook that includes tips for schools on postvention – the interventions after a suicide that a school can do to support those who are grieving but also return the school to its state before the suicide occurred. Postvention also includes reducing the chances of future suicides from “suicide contagion”.
• This source provides a list of high risk groups and individuals for suicide after the campus suicide has occurred. While this handbook is for schools, perhaps students can also be aware of this list and know who to watch out for among their peers. There are also practical tips and advice for both students and faculty on how to take care of themselves and each other.
• The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
• (While this guide was last updated in 2014, it is included on a website that is updated as of 2019.)

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

I did not add every source I found because they all ended up saying the same thing: talk about it. Every source recommended that survivors should talk about how they feel, if not with those in their immediate support system, then with professionals. Support groups were the most common recommendations. However, not everyone has access to support groups or therapy. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has a program called “Healing Conversations” that can connect individuals in the US to volunteers that can act as temporary support systems (see source 3).

Source 4 is a directory in which individuals can find support groups near them, and each listing includes contact information and whether they are free or not, accommodating those who cannot afford therapy. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255) (source 6). The hotline not only provides someone to speak to about your current feelings, but can also connect you to resources that may help you in feeling better or getting help.

In terms of what a community can actually do for one another, suicide prevention organizations (sources 5 and 6) suggest creating suicide prevention coalitions if they do not already exist. Sources 5 and 6 give tips on how a community (starting with a school) can go about doing this. The immediate goal is to address the grief of the community and prevent suicide contagion (defined in source 5 summary). Suicides that occur one after another are called suicide clusters (source 6) and one of the goals of these coalitions is to prevent that. These prevention efforts that occur after a suicide are called ‘postvention’. For example, whether a memorial or open funeral is recommended for a campus suicide is up to the discretion of the family and depends on the circumstances. Sources 5 and 6 generally suggest shying away from both things unless there is a high demand from the community and/or family to hold a memorial. All community movements and efforts (outside of creating and attending support groups) are recommended to be done with suicide contagion in mind. The goal is to address and validate the grief without misplacing blame or sending the message that suicide is the answer to a person’s problems.