Introduction to Grief Support Series | Beyond Risk Factors and Warning Signs: An Introduction to Suicide

Suicidology has been a distinct discipline for over half a century, yet suicide is still misunderstood as a symptom of psychiatric illness – treat the illness, suicidality will go away. This has never worked and suicide rates, particularly among Black youth in America, continue to climb (Jackson-Lowman et al., 2023). This is partly because of European-based assumptions that suicide is a singular, individual, autonomous experience without connection to socio-cultural contexts or structural-historical forces (Button & Marsh, 2020). Instead, suicide is a “wicked problem” (Bryan, 2021): highly complex and not easily addressed with solution-focused, linear thinking. Grief after suicide has been underestimated in terms of the reach and impact on the bereaved. Research has led to the construction of the Continuum Model of the Effects of Suicide Exposure (National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, 2015), illustrating that 115 people are exposed each time a suicide occurs, and 63 of these will have high or very high closeness with the deceased. Those bereaved after suicide are often challenged by the “perceived intentionality” of the death and related “perceived responsibility” for the death (Jordan, 2020). Research shows that lifetime suicide exposure is related to increased suicidal ideation, PTS, and anxiety (Andriessen et al., 2020). This presentation will go beyond risk factors and warning signs that lead to inaccurate presumptions about suicide. We will review theories of and best practices for addressing suicidal behavior, framing suicidality as not just an individual act but something that has social determinants (Millner et al., 2020; Jackson-Lowman et al., 2023). We will address research about and best practices for suicide intervention, postvention, and supporting grievers after suicide. The presentation will offer special consideration of how children and teens are impacted, what they worry about after a suicide death, and ways to support them (Andriessen et al., 2020).

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Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Novice – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify and discuss theories of suicide.
• Identify and discuss research on and best practices for suicide intervention and addressing suicidal behavior.
• Identify and discuss research on and best practices for postvention and grief support after suicide.

Speaker Bios:

Janet McCord, PhD, FT, Professor of Thanatology and Thanatology Program Director at Edgewood College, has been a thanatologist and suicidologist for nearly 30 years. She is a death educator who teaches a broad array of topics in thanatology and suicidology and has educated hundreds of master’s level students around the globe in graduate thanatology programs. She is a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG) since 2016 and embraces the IWG’s vision as her own: a world where dying, death, and bereavement are an open part of all cultures. Her research interests include the investigation of global and cultural perspectives of trauma, dying, death, grief, suicide, and loss, and the intersection of thanatology with literature and the arts. She is in the process of conducting research on death and funeral rituals among the Acholi and BaGanda peoples of Uganda, and plans to expand this research to other low-income countries. She currently serves as a Thanatology Section Editor for the Routledge Online Resources: Death, Dying, and Bereavement, and has published peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, book chapters, and contributed to a range of projects as an author or reviewer.

Rebecca S. Morse, PhD, is a behavioral and developmental psychologist and thanatologist. She has taught at several Universities and Colleges on a broad range of topics in psychology, criminology, traumatology, grief after suicide, and thanatology. She is a Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and is the co-chair for the American Psychological Association End of Life Special Interest Group. She is also a collaborator on a project with the Hospice Foundation of America to provide grief education for individuals with Autism, funded by the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation. She is a Thanatology Subject Editor for Taylor & Francis, and has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and contributed to numerous textbooks as both an author, and a reviewer.