An article in a recent issue of the University of Portland campus newspaper,The Beacon, introduced me to a story about a death by suicide that was stigmatized and how the effects of stigma are unfolding in real time -- and hopefully about how stigma is being overcome.

The article, by UP student Logan Crabtree, caught my eye because he tells of founding, with fellow student Jesse Dunn, an Active Minds chapter at UP "following the suicide of our friend Mike" -- and I am always moved when, in the aftermath of suicide, survivors like Crabtee and Dunn take action to improve mental health resources and services in their community.

I was also touched by Crabtree's frankness about the struggles of the new chapter, including the impact that another student's suicide had on him, only nine months after the death of Michael Eberitzsch II:

We were devastated by the news of Conner Hall’s suicide ... For me his death felt like a personal failure. I spent weeks questioning and reviewing every event, article and Facebook post we had made [during the start-up of Active Minds]. What else could we have done? Why did this happen? What else can we do?

I sympathized with Crabtree regarding his feeling of personal failure, which I believe everyone involved in suicide prevention has grappled with, each of us in our own way -- and I was curious about what was happening at UP. An Internet search led me to the backstory, which is, at turns, both troubling and hopeful -- just as facing the harsh reality of suicide often is.

Click on the picture above to go to a video that sets the scene for the entire series (the video features several moving stories from people's personal experience). My introduction to the series came when a colleague sent me the article "Some Survivors Cope with Loss by Helping Others Affected by Suicide," which tells the stories of people bereaved by suicide who now volunteer in a variety of ways that change -- and literally save -- the lives of others struggling with suicide and its aftermath.

“All we can do is accept this loss without ever understanding it, and lean on one another to move forward ... I can give hope to those who are newer than I. From the pain, we can grow in knowledge and wisdom, and experience joy again.”

Suicide stigma continues to be a powerful and active force that is woven into the fabric of our communal interactions. Stigma affects people who think about suicide, who attempt it, who die from it, and who are left behind to mourn the dead ... Research shows that stigma negatively affects [survivors of suicide loss's] tendency to seek help, their social connections, and their sense of isolation ... SOSLs consistently report that people often do not know what to do or say to acknowledge or support their mourning, which suggests that suicide stigma continues to influence people's beliefs and behavior.

The simple format is a plain frame containing each person's picture, name, and age. The pictures are broadcast one suicide victim after another in a seemingly unending stream on the PAFOS Facebook page. The pictures of each unique -- and very alive -- human being connect us all to one another, hopefully in a way that weakens the influence of suicide stigma.

Here are instructions for submitting information about a loved one for inclusion in "Putting a Face on Suicide."

So I noted with interest an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle by a leading suicide researcher, Thomas Ellis, who commented on Warren's first sermon after his son's death four months ago. Ellis writes,

[Warren] resisted the urge to explain the unexplainable and instead delivered a sermon with a passionate call to action. His emphatic message was that neither suicide nor mental illness should be cause for shame; and he committed to his global audience to use his public ministry to eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness.

[There is] a tension, and a difference of emphasis, between guidance for the press based on strategies to prevent copycat suicides (especially avoidance of certain details) and the perspectives of bereaved people (who feel they have a right to expect sympathetic and accurate reporting). There is a tension between a guideline that suggests that certain information should be withheld/not disclosed and a perspective that favours (in reports of an individual case) an accurate account, which may include such information (such as an image of the person who died).

... systematic reviews of the literature have concluded that suicide rates may rise after media reports of suicide, especially if the dead person was a celebrity, if the report glamorises the suicide, if reporting is prominent, or if the method of suicide is discussed in detail.

"Couple Hopes to Help the Suicide Bereaved" (Annette Hinkle, Sag Harbor Express) highlights Bill and Bev Feigelman's efforts to spread the word about the needs of survivors of suicide loss. The Feigelman's son Jesse died by suicide in 2002 when he was 31 years old, and his parents are now dedicated to the cause of helping people bereaved by suicide.

The article tells of the Feigelman's advocacy on behalf of people who have lost a loved one to suicide, including their "mission to convince medical schools and continuing healthcare education programs to train doctors about the importance of reaching out to the newly bereaved and offer appropriate referrals."

They are also the authors of a recent book on suicide bereavement titled Devastating Losses: How Parents Cope with the Loss of a Child to Suicide or Drugs (with co-authors John Jordan and John McIntosh), which is based on data from the largest survey ever conducted of parents surviving a child's suicide or other traumatic death.

Develop consensus guidelines for the creation and implementation of effective, comprehensive support programs for survivors of suicide loss. The Guidelines will serve as a crystallizing benchmark for organizations, communities, states, and the nation for the development of a support infrastructure for survivors of suicide loss.

They will be using various forms of media, including blogging and in-depth video shorts, to connect more intimately with those who are participating and following their journey. While many have traveled by bike or foot across the country, and have blogged about their adventures, their planned extent of real-time video blogging will be unprecedented. Thomas will film the entire tour, providing a collective view of suicide, the ripple effect it can create in one’s life, family and community, and how “personal reflection and creative expression can be a catharsis to counter stressful ordeals."

Below are examples of the video clips Thomas and Zak are posting along the way, the first one features Thomas a few days after their journey began on the West Coast, and the second one features Zak more than two months later in eastern Kansas: