Helping those bereaved by suicide
Helping others grieving a suicide is a demanding task as it affects you aswell. However by coming to terms with your own loss you can help thoes more directly affected. Familiarise yourself with the experiences of grief the bereaved is having. There are general and specific suggestions to folow.
Overall encourage hope that they can learn to live with a lessintense but still real grief.
Struggling with bereavment by suicide
This blog looks at the experience of losing a loved one to suicide. What are you to expect from such a loss? How can you look after yourself in the immediate and long-term experience of the loss? How to develop hope for your future while still having sadness for the person you have lost?
Words to the broken hearted
Positive quotes about our ability to overcome adversity. While such quotes can seem over;y simplistic they can still spur us on to better things.
Supporting the fragile
How do we support our loved ones when their mood is low and behaviour is very negative? We should not be affraid to engage with them anjust sit with them in their space.
We do not have to cheer them up, or help solve their problems. If they want company they mostly just want you to be there.
This maybe enough for them to share with you what pain they are dealing with and start to heal.
Managing a suicidal emergency
If you walk into what seems to be a suicide attempt the first thing to manage is your own shock. Positive, active, immediate interventionis are essential. Get medical support if needed. Assess the degree of suicidality and maintin a safe an area as possible. Don’t be afraid to ask direct questions and keep with the client until their risk has decreased or they are with somone else safe. Occupy the person and try to remove them from the location you found them in.
Suicide: Can Counselling help?
How therapy can help a suicidal person. First assessment of risk. Help the client identify reasons to live. Developing long term skills in wanting to stay alive. Four therapeutic approaches that maybe used are highlighted.
Dying to survive: Facts about suicide in Ireland
The reality of suicide has touched all of us in some way.
The statistics of suicide are bleak.
Whether it is younger or older people, male or female, the reasons for suicide are individual to each person’s story. Common to most stories are the realities of isolation and hopelessness. Perhaps this is because by the time a person comes to the point of suicide, they have stopped properly engaging with people and have lost hope that there is any solution apart from death.
Thankfully, there are numerous emergency services available via the phone to meet these people in their time and place of need.