Few things distress a school community more than a student’s death by suicide, yet school teachers, administrators and staff often don’t have what they need to respond to a suicide crisis. Knowing the right things to do after a student’s suicide is essential for helping students and staff cope with the loss and prevent further tragedies.
I’ll be doing a poster presentation (“Suicide Postvention in Schools: An Innovative Online Toolkit for Managing Crises”) that discusses the importance of suicide prevention and postvention* in schools, and provides an overview of a forthcoming online toolkit for responding to a suicide crisis. I got involved with developing the toolkit as part of my role as a Senior Prevention Specialist at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), a national technical assistance resource center.
The project is a collaborative effort between SPRC, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and seeks to meet a distinct need in the field for concise, easy to access information to help schools respond after a suicide. I’ve had a longstanding passion for school-based work, so the toolkit was a good fit with my interests and skills.
I’m excited to be presenting on this topic at NASBHC’s Convention and look forward to conversations about how the toolkit will benefit SBHCs, whether there are content areas that are especially relevant for your school communities, and how we might think about promoting the toolkit when it goes live in September.
*Suicide postvention refers to the provision of crisis intervention and other support following a suicide to address and alleviate the possible effects of suicide, including contagion.
Gayle Jaffe, MSW, MPH is a Senior Prevention Specialist with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (www.sprc.org), which provides support, training, and resources to organizations and individuals at the national, tribal, state, territorial, and community levels.
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