Best Practices for Supporting Schools, Workplaces, and Communities After Suicide Loss

When a suicide occurs in a school, college, or workplace, the impact can ripple through the entire community. Without a thoughtful, organized response, vulnerability can increase, and more tragedies can occur. That’s why postvention, the immediate and structured support following a suicide, is essential for healing and prevention.

This training provides practical strategies to help schools, colleges, and workplaces respond effectively to a suicide death. Designed as a condensed version of our comprehensive postvention training, participants will learn how to implement best practices, postvention activities, the use of screening tools in a postvention setting, and strategies for responding to typical dilemmas such as handling memorials, responding to denial that the death was a suicide, and reacting to information spread on social media.

Presenter Larry Berkowitz, EdD, Co-founder/Senior Clinical Consultant at Riverside Trauma Center and Instructor at William James College, brings decades of experience and real-world insights from communities where postvention efforts have made a measurable difference. Attendees will leave with the tools and confidence to support individuals and strengthen systems during one of the most challenging times a community can face.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify three goals of an effective suicide postvention response.
2. Recognize and address three common dilemmas in implementing postvention within schools or workplaces, using best-practice solutions.
3. Explain what it means to “change the narrative on suicide” and give practical examples of how to do so.

Details

• Audience: This training is designed for anyone responsible for supporting individuals and communities after a suicide loss—whether in schools, colleges, universities, care centers, organizations, or workplace settings.
• Length: 2 hours
• CEs: No