Life, death and the experience of suicide and accidental death bereavement for Australia's rural farming families

Abstract

Rural farming families constitute a heterogeneous slice of Australia's population, frequently existing in unique psychological, social and geographical contexts, and subject to numerous heightened mortality risks including suicide and accidental death. Despite efforts to measure and understand such deaths, there is a dearth of knowledge on how such incidents affect those remaining. This thesis aimed to understand how Australian farming families live and die and how they experience suicide and/or accidental death, the following questions were posed: (1) Who are Australia's farming families? How do they live? How do they die? (2) How do farming family members experience loss following suicide and accidental death? (3) How does the farming family context influence this bereavement?