Key issues, challenges, and preferred supports for those bereaved by suicide: Insights from postvention experts

Abstract

For many, suicide bereavement is challenging. Postvention responses are few and evidence to inform them is lacking. Eighteen postvention experts completed an online survey regarding the key issues, challenges, and supports available to people bereaved by suicide. Participants were asked to identify the issues, then rank them in terms of importance at key times during the first 2 years after death, with navigating grief, managing relationships, and dealing with practical challenges identified. Access to information, practical assistance and non-judgmental support were most important early in the bereavement period. These findings provide a foundation for recommendations for postvention interventions.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable contribution Amanda McAtamney made to this project while employed at Everymind.

Disclosure statement

MM is the Deputy Chair of SPRF Research Advisory Committee and Chair of the Innovation Grant review panel. She is past co-chair of the International Association for Suicide Prevention Special Interest Group on Suicide Bereavement and Postvention, a role which she was no longer in when this survey was circulated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Innovation Grant from Suicide Prevention Research Fund (SPRF) and University of New England Faculty of Medicine and Health Seed Grant.