Suicide
Problems For Survivors
Those who experience the suicide of a significant other are known as survivors. Survivors have great difficulty coping with the death, perhaps more so than those whose significant others die of natural causes. In some cases, it is the family members who discover the body of the suicide, often greatly disfigured by the suicide. For example, Leicester Hemingway, Ernest's brother, was only thirteen when he found his father dead from a firearm wound. Leicester was one of the three children who later completed suicide.
Furthermore, the grieving process after a suicide is different in significant ways from the grieving after natural deaths. There is more anger felt toward the suicide and guilt over what the survivors might have done to prevent the suicide. Group therapy is particularly helpful for survivors whether led by peers or by professionals (Farberow 2001).
In recent years, survivors have banded together to form organizations to help one another and to work for the prevention of suicide in general. There are survivor groups in many countries and, in some countries, in every region. In the United States, the American Association of Suicidology maintains a directory of these services and, inter-nationally, Befrienders International has services (usually under the name The Samaritans) in more than forty countries.
See also: CHILDHOOD, STAGES OF: ADOLESCENCE; DEATH AND DYING; DEPRESSION: ADULTS; DEPRESSION: CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS; EUTHANASIA; GRIEF, LOSS, AND BEREAVEMENT; RAPE; SELF-ESTEEM; WIDOWHOOD
Bibliography
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Many countries have networks of telephone crisis centers,such as this one, staffed by volunteers. The crisis centers function twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for individuals to call during times when they are most distressed.
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Other Resources
American Association of Suicidology. (2002). Available from http://www.suicidology.org.
World Health Organization. (2002). Available from www.who.int.
DAVID LESTER
Additional topics
Marriage and Family EncyclopediaFamily Social IssuesSuicide - The Epidemiology Of Suicide, Theories Of Suicide, Marital Status And The Family, The Protective Effect Of Children