International Survivor and Postvention Research

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature that examines the experience of bereavement on family, friends, peers, co-workers, & mental health professionals left behind following a suicide. Suicide bereavement research is now reaching a developmental stage, where larger studies are required to test the findings of prior qualitative studies in broader population studies. This panel presentation will describe three bodies of research focused on survivors and postvention, Dr. Maple is from Australia, Dr. Mitchell is from the U.S. and Dr. Barlow is from Canada. Dr. Cerel will moderate the panel. Dr. Maple's presentation will describe Australian research in suicide bereavement undertaken over the past decade that has led to the development of a mixed methods design to commence testing the appropriateness of standardized scales for use in suicide bereaved populations. Detailed information will be presented from a small sample of friends of young people deceased through suicide, who along with an in-depth interview, were administered the PG-13, DASS, BDI-II, STAI, and CISS. It is anticipated that this trial of these tools with this population will inform larger suicide bereavement study submissions. Dr. Mitchell's presentation is an extension of her earlier work utilizing a bereavement crisis debriefing intervention for survivors. The intent of this new project is to build an electronic application that sends emotional state text message queries with fixed Likert-type scale responses to smart-phones, utilizing a mobile communication system called COMPANION. COMPANION's purpose is to provide general social and clinical information support to its users (who may be survivors, support network members, and/or clinicians). Because bereavement-related stress may require monitoring and can benefit from positive feedback, the development of an intelligent system to provide supportive feedback with the ability to connect select individuals to assist with care and support has promise. This presentation will report on the presenter's earlier work, the development of the text message (SMS) queries, and on the evaluation of appropriate text message responses to be used in the COMPANION system. Dr. Barlow's presentation will be focused on peer support, a cornerstone to recovery programs for mental illness and addiction. Peer support has not been widely applied to suicide postvention services. This presentation will briefly review the literature on peer support as utilized in a variety of mental health services and consider its applicability to survivors of suicide. Secondly it will report on mixed methods evaluation of a Peer Support Program for adults that was offered as an adjunct to individual and group intervention by Canadian Mental Health Association, Suicide Services, in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Finally, it will describe how peer support can be integrated into suicide postvention program design and policy development.