Postvention Resources — After a Suicide Death

When suicide affects our community, Options for Southern Oregon offers support to help people heal, build resilience, and reduce future risk among those who have lost someone to suicide. 

This work is called postvention and is provided by trained professionals at our county’s Community Mental Health Organization, Options for Southern Oregon. Postvention is a coordinated response after a suicide that focuses on supporting survivors and addressing emotional and mental health needs. The goal is to reduce the risk of additional harm while helping individuals and families navigate grief and loss. 

If you have lost someone to suicide, you are not alone. Millions of people are impacted by suicide loss. It is common to experience feelings such as guilt, confusion, anger, emptiness, or even questioning your own will to live. 

How to access support

If you or someone you support has lost someone to suicide, contact the Postvention Response Team at jcspc@optionsonline.org. A postvention team member will reach out by phone to offer compassionate support, help explore resources, and discuss next steps. With your permission, the team can also reach out to others who may need support and schedule future check-ins.

Please note, this email is not for immediate or time sensitive needs. If you need immediate support, call the Josephine Co. Crisis Line at 541-474-5360 or call or text 988. 

Suicide Loss Resources

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Healing Conversations — Connects those who have lost someone to suicide for a one-time visit (phone, virtual or in-person) with trained volunteers who are also survivors of suicide loss.

• Dougy Center — Support for grieving children, teens, young adults, and their families. There are also Spanish resources.

• The Helpline Center — Provides individual phone or caring card support to loss survivors (email griefsupport@helplinecenter.org to request).

• National Alliance for Children’s Grief —Provides resources for supporting children who are grieving a death by suicide. There are also Spanish resources.

• Oregon Health Authority Help Texts — OHA is offering year-long, evidence-based grief and mental health support via text message for teens and adults ages 13+.

• Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) — Provides a suicide loss grief packet and practical resources. 

Suicide Loss Grief Support Groups

• LOCAL IN-PERSON GROUP — Healing Hearts - Grants Pass every Tuesday—

  Every Tuesday (except last Tues of each month)

  5:30-7pm 224 NW D St. Grants Pass

  To RSVP: jvkieffer@icloud.com 541-218-4913

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Support Group Database
  Virtual and in-person support groups.

• Coalition of Clinician Survivors
  Provides virtual groups to mental health and mental health adjacent professionals who have experienced suicide losses in personal and/or professional contexts.

• Compassionate Friends
  Virtual support community for parents, grandparents and siblings for suicide loss of a child.

• Dougy Center  
  Offers in person and virtual children's support groups designed around age, type of death, and who died (parent, sibling, friend) in English and Spanish. Parent/adult caregiver groups run at the same time as the children's support groups.

• Friends for Survival Suicide Loss Support Groups 
  Provides virtual grieving mom’s group, grieving men’s group, spouse and partner group and other support groups.

• Helpline Support Groups for Suicide Loss Survivors 
  Virtual support groups.

• National Widowers’ Organization  
  Supports men who have lost a spouse, life partner, child, parent, or sibling by providing resources, support groups and a Widower-to-Widower Peer Support Program which offers personal connection with trained volunteers who are also widowers.

• SafePlace Support Groups for Suicide Loss Survivors
  Virtual support groups.

• Virtual Meetings for Parents and Guardians Who Have Lost a Child to Suicide
  Support groups facilitated by trained volunteers who have themselves experienced a similar loss.

• Virtual Suicide Grief Support Group for the LGBTQAI+ Community
  A peer-led support group, facilitated by fellow LGBTQ2SIA+ suicide loss survivor. 

Safe messaging and media kits

• Action Alliance Framework for Successful Messaging —

• Best Practices for Reporting on Suicide (PDF) - These recommendations were established using a consensus model developed by SAVE in collaboration with other leading suicide prevention and journalism organizations.

• Safe Messaging around Mental Health and Suicide (PDF) -- Public messaging can have a major impact on how or whether we address suicide in Oregon. This guide provides simple tips for lifting up a narrative that supports help seeking, mental health promotion, and suicide prevention.

• Using a Person's Correct Pronouns Saves Lives (PDF) -- An important part of creating a supportive environment for transgender and nonbinary youth is understanding – and using appropriately – the terms they use to describe themselves.

Printable materials and guides

For Youth and Children

• Now What? Tips for Teen Who Are Grieving (PDF) — Printout for teens experiencing grief by the Dougy Center

• Your Friend is Grieving: Tips for Supporting Them (PDF) — Printout for teens supporting friend who are grieving by the Dougy Center.

• Movement Activities for Children who are Grieving (PDF) — Printout for physical outlets for connecting

  with feelings and processing grief by Dougy Center.

School and educator resources

• School Crisis Recovery and Renewal Resources - Find resources and tools for advancing school crisis readiness, response, recovery, and renewal work, with a focus on recovery and renewal.

• Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools - This toolkit provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) assists high schools and school districts in designing and implementing strategies to prevent suicide and promote behavioral health.

• After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools (PDF) - This toolkit provided by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center provides step-by-step guidance, templates, and resources for schools all in one place.

• The Model School Policy - The Trevor Project collaborated with others to create a Model School District Policy for Suicide Prevention to make it easier for schools to prevent, assess, intervene in, and respond to suicidal behavior.

Crisis resources

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – 988 provides 24/7, free and confidential emotional and mental health support for people in distress, resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals. Call or text 988 or chat online at 988Lifeline.org.

Book Recommendations

It’s OK That You’re Not OK

by Megan Devine

This is for general grief and looks into sudden, unexpected deaths. Find out more here.

There is also an accompanying journal for grief called How To Carry What Can’t Be Fixed.

Suicide Loss Books

• The After Journey – A Survivor’s Guide After the Death of a Loved One by Suicide
  Written by parents who lost their 14-year-old daughter to suicide (free download)

• Understanding Your Suicide Grief
  Built on Dr. Wolfelt’s Ten Touchstones—basic principles to learn and actions to take to help yourself engage with your grief and create momentum toward healing.

• Ask Me: 30 Things I Want You to Know. Living Beyond Suicide – Helping Yourself or Helping a Friend
  Written by parents who lost their adult son to suicide.