For anyone the sudden loss of a student, peer, friend, sibling or relative to suicide can be devastating and traumatic. Grieving after such a loss requires support in order to navigate a profoundly changed world. How profoundly one’s world is changed is a very individual experience, as is grief in general. Children and adolescents are generally more vulnerable to trauma than adults and children grieve differently than adults. They tend to grieve sporadically reflecting their limited maturity. A teen will likely “experience reactions similar to those of adults, but will have fewer ways to cope.” The grief following a suicide does not end or go away. Rather, when dealt with successfully, it is transformed and integrated into the background of one’s life.
Select each category below to learn more.
In This Section You Will Find:
- Details on the needs of bereaved children and adolescents after a suicide
- Tips for helping children and teens after experiencing a loss to suicide (from the Dougy Center)
PDFs
Books
- Children, Teens and Suicide Loss, The Dougy Center and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, (2017)
- Requarth, M., (2006). After a parent’s suicide: Helping children heal. Healing Hearts Press, Sebastopol, California
- Jordan, J., Baugher, B. (2016). After suicide loss: Coping with your grief. Caring People Press, Newcastle, Washington
- After a Suicide Death: An Activity Book for Grieving Kids. (2001). The Dougy Center
Websites
- Child Survivors of Suicide: A Guidebook — Comprehensive guidance on helping children bereaved by suicide, by Rebecca Parkin and Karen Dunne-Maxim
- HEARD Alliance — Grief
- When a Child’s Friend Dies by Suicide — Tips for parents and caregivers, from Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide
- After a Suicide Death: Ten Tips for Helping Children & Teens —Brochure from the Dougy Center