{"id":384818,"date":"2026-01-22T20:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384818\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:31:07","slug":"finding-help-following-suicide-or-an-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384818\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Help Following Suicide or an Attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many crisis centers that operate 24-hour suicide prevention hotlines also provide grief<\/a> counseling to people who are mourning a death. That\u2019s because many people who have lost a loved one to suicide are more at risk for suicide themselves.<\/p>\n

The crisis center I directed provided individual counseling and also operated multiple grief support groups. Four of the groups were for survivors of suicide\u2014parents who lost children, youths who lost parents, individuals who lost partners, and others who lost siblings or friends because of suicide. Typically, there were 15 to 20 people in each of these four groups, although sometimes the number was greater, and we needed extra facilitators.<\/p>\n

The first night of each group was memorable for one main reason. Upon entering the room, many people gasped. They couldn\u2019t believe that so many other people were there, that so many others had experienced the same tragedy they had experienced, the suicide of a loved one. Until that moment, they felt completely alone.<\/p>\n

Our grief counseling director, who was a nationally recognized death educator, started every first night the same way: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry that you\u2019re here, and I\u2019m so glad that you\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anytime someone dies, it can be traumatic<\/a> for survivors. Suicide deaths tend to be the most traumatic of all because of the guilt<\/a> and stigma<\/a> attached to them. Survivors think back on every interaction they had with the deceased, especially recent ones, questioning what they did or didn\u2019t do\u2014all of the \u201cwhat ifs.\u201d Did they miss warning signs? Did they take something the decedent said too lightly? Were they slow to act or did they not act at all, even in the face of what, in retrospect, was ominous?<\/p>\n

Support groups for people who have attempted suicide are rare. A few agencies operate them, but they are hard to find, in part because leading this kind of group is daunting. Not only is everyone in it at high risk of suicide, but many suicidal<\/a> people have emotional needs that can be overwhelming for the facilitator.<\/p>\n

Support groups for parents whose children have attempted suicide are even rarer. More often than not, parents seek individual counseling for their child and\/or counseling for the family with a private therapist. This, too, can be challenging to find, however, because many clinicians don\u2019t have experience or aren\u2019t comfortable providing this kind of therapy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One new resource is an hour-long video developed by Zero Suicide<\/a> titled Supporting Parents<\/a>. It\u2019s specifically for parents whose child has attempted suicide, and recognizes the fears, anxieties, and questions parents have; the helpless feelings they experience; and the fact that they might feel alone in this, but are not. Many others, sadly, are in the same position.<\/p>\n

Having a loved one die or attempt suicide is an isolating experience, but a person doesn\u2019t have to be alone. Help exists.<\/p>\n

Zero Suicide is a global health care initiative whose goal isn\u2019t just to prevent suicides but to end them. For anyone who is worried about the safety of a loved one, the only acceptable number when it comes to suicide is zero. Four other resources are noteworthy: The national, three-digit Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988) connects callers seamlessly to the nearest, certified crisis center so that they can receive immediate, free, confidential counseling. The Crisis Text Line (741741) does the same thing for texters. The Trevor Project (1-888-488-7386) provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual<\/a>, transgender<\/a>, and questioning youth under the age of 25. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has local chapters throughout the country and provides a variety of support services for mental health consumers and family members.<\/p>\n

To find a therapist near you, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many crisis centers that operate 24-hour suicide prevention hotlines also provide grief counseling to people who are mourning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-384818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}