Citation

Andriessen K, Krysinska K. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012; 9(1): 24-32.

Affiliation

Suicide Prevention Program of the Flemish Community Mental Health Centres, 9000 Gent, Belgium.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph9010024

PMID

22470275

PMCID

PMC3315078

Abstract

During the past decades public and research interest in postvention, i.e., support for families and communities after a suicide, has increased. However, the postvention field is still facing a number of important challenges and questions. This article aims to discuss a series of essential issues on suicide bereavement and postvention, regarding the current state of the art and future developments. Who is a suicide survivor and how many suicide survivors are there? Is suicide bereavement different from other types of bereavement? What are the needs of suicide survivors and what is postvention from a clinical perspective and from a public health perspective? Can postvention be prevention? With this last question, the article concludes with a series of recommendations in order to strengthen the potential of postvention as prevention.

Language: en