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PARADOX REQUIRES CAREFUL SCRUTINY OF HELP FOR SUICIDE BEREAVED

5/18/2015

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Illuminated candles in rows
By Franklin Cook

A recent blog post on Grief After Suicide argues (convincingly, I hope) that suicide bereavement is unique because suicide itself is a unique way to die. Yet, at the same time, an abundance of research -- not to mention the universality of the human experience of grief -- points to a paradox, namely, that all bereavement over the death of a loved one shares a great deal in common. In other words, grief after suicide is, simultaneously, both different than and similar to bereavement following other means of death.

Understanding and accounting for this paradox is important because, as is stated in recently released national guidelines on responding to suicide, created by the Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention:*
Suicide grief support is an emerging field of practice poised to gain strength from newer understandings of bereavement adaptation in thanatology [the study of death and bereavement].
This emerging field would benefit tremendously from looking more closely at -- and acting more collaboratively with -- the field of grief counseling (as well as other fields, such as traumatology, mental health crisis response, and disaster response). Doing so would enrich and strengthen suicide grief support through the application of evidence-based and promising practices that are already proving to be effective with a variety of bereaved people. Taking this multi-disciplinary approach would prevent responses to suicide grief from evolving based on narrow or monolithic ideas centered primarily around what is unique about suicide bereavement.

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THE VERDICT IS IN: SUICIDE CAUSES COLLATERAL DAMAGE

5/6/2015

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Line Drawing of Jury

By Franklin Cook

A recent summary report,* "Impact of Suicide on People Exposed to a Fatality," raises an alarm about negative effects some people bereaved by suicide suffer from their loss that go beyond their experience of grief. The report is available, below, to read or download. It delineates research evidence that substantiates two troubling facts:

First, that the bereaved are at a higher risk for suicide:
"Clear and overwhelming evidence [shows] that exposure to the suicide of another person, particularly of a close intimate, elevates the risk of ... death by suicide in the population of people exposed."
Second, that the suicide bereaved are at a higher risk for other negative outcomes:
"The elevated risk for suicidality is not the only adverse effect of exposure to suicide. Many studies have also found elevated rates of psychiatric disorders (particularly depression), social difficulties, and continuing grief reactions in the suicide bereaved when compared with other types of loss survivors or population-level norms."
Even though research on the effects of suicide loss is sparse (which will be the subject of a post later in this series), the report concludes that the United States should "move ahead nationally to strengthen programs, services, resources, and systems to help suicide loss survivors and others affected by a fatality."

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RESEARCHERS FIND LINK BETWEEN ONSET OF GRIEF AND HEART ATTACK RISK

5/16/2012

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A scientific study reported earlier this year in an American Heart Association journal confirms that the physical effect of grief truly can be a serious matter. In fact, according to a WebMD article:
Following the death of someone close, the researchers found that heart attack risk
  • • was 21 times higher than normal within the first day;
  • • was nearly six times higher than normal within the first week; [and]
  • • steadily declined over the first month.

This risk needs to be studied further, researchers say, noting that heart attacks caused by grief are relatively rare in the overall population.

[They] theorize that the emotional stress of grief, including anger, anxiety, and depression, can take a toll on the heart ... And after losing someone they care about, people tend to sleep and eat less, and they may smoke more and forget to take their medication.

These are some of the reasons why people who are grieving are at a much higher risk for heart attack than usual.

"Friends and family of bereaved people should provide close support to help prevent such incidents, especially near the beginning of the grieving process," says researcher Elizabeth Mostofsky, ScD ... [of] the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
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