Getting Started | Enhancing Your Plan

GETTING STARTED

After a suicide loss, supervisors and managers are in a prime position to intervene within their organization. Effective leadership following a suicide loss is instrumental to addressing the immediate and ongoing needs of your employees – your actions make a tremendous difference in suicide postvention. This USPV section is designed to help you strengthen your suicide postvention response in the workplace.

If you work at a VA, please visit the VA’s Postvention SharePoint @ https://dvagov.sharepoint.com/sites/ECH/srsa/SitePages/Postvention%20Resources.aspx

Podcast: Postvention Practices for the Workplace

Check out this podcast to learn why suicide postvention plans are necessary for every workplace. Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, a psychologist, suicide loss survivor, and suicide prevention leader, provides recommendations for how to put a postvention plan in place and who within a workplace should be involved.

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Supporting Employees after a Suicide

This infographic features the essential best practice elements of a workplace suicide postvention plan. Once these steps have been included, be sure to enhance your plan by including additional factors that address the unique needs of your workplace

Download PDF of Supporting Employees after a Suicide

Workplace Suicide Postvention

Having a clear, well-developed suicide postvention plan in the workplace is essential to supporting employees after a suicide loss. Taking steps to prepare for a suicide loss will ensure that you are equipped to respond quickly after the loss, allowing individual employees and the organization as a whole to come together in healing. The following short film outlines key steps for creating and implementing an effective workplace postvention plan, including forming a suicide postvention team, training team members, and identifying local and national resources.

English with Audio Description | En Español | En Español con Descripción de Audio

Guidance Documents

Managers Guidebook to Suicide Postvention
This resource offers practical suicide postvention organizational strategies for managers. The guide was created by the Workplace Postvention Task Force of the American Association of Suicidology and the Workplace Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

Action Alliance National Guidelines
These guidelines, developed by the Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, present a comprehensive overview of postvention practices, including strategies on how to provide organizational support after a suicide loss.

Visit the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention website for more resources for suicide prevention and postvention.

Postvention Support from a Distance
This guidance document provides recommended ways to connect with and support suicide loss survivors when it is not possible to do so in person (e.g. during national emergencies/pandemics, in rural areas, while working from home, or when loved ones live far away).

ENHANCING YOUR PLAN

Although there are several recommended essential components to suicide postvention in the workplace, the complex nature of suicide loss necessitates special care and consideration when tailoring a postvention plan to fit the particular needs of each work setting. This section contains invaluable resources to help managers adjust and adapt their postvention plans to best serve the needs of their employees and other affected individuals.

Podcasts: Postvention Practices in Workplace Settings

The breadth of individuals impacted by a suicide loss can vary greatly depending upon the setting in which the loss occurs. The following podcast episodes are available to provide setting-specific guidance for postvention practices.

Medical Centers

General Workplaces

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Crisis Centers

Schools

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Mental Health Centers and Private Practices

Military Settings

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Guidance Documents

Suicide Postvention Team Pilot Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
In June 2019 a national Suicide Postvention Team pilot program launched. This integrated endeavor between mental health and chaplaincy is a Dynamic Diffusion Network selected practice, designed to gather data on how to implement suicide postvention teams across the VA. The attached document is the current SOP that pilot programs are utilizing to help guide suicide postvention efforts for Veterans, community members (including family and friends), and employees. This SOP is based upon a protocol utilized at the Stratton VAMC and is consistent with a SOP drafted by a suicide postvention workgroup in 2016-2017.

Suicide Postvention Guidance following a Suicide at a VHA Facility
When a suicide occurs at a facility or on a VA campus, it is essential to engage in best practices regarding suicide postvention, with the goal of helping Veterans, employees, and the community cope with suicide loss.

Training Resources

The Connect Program
Suicide Risk and Promote-Healing Suicide Postvention Training

Loss Team Postvention Workshops & Training

If you are looking for more resources regarding the personal impact of suicide loss, check out the Community section of USPV.

If you are a medical or mental health provider who has lost someone to suicide (personally or professionally), check out the Providers section of USPV.