Working with children affected by suicide – part two

What are some of the ideas surrounding suicide that can be potentially unhelpful for children, young people and families grappling with the loss of a loved one? How can practitioners make space for children’s wisdom and creativity during such difficult times, particularly in ways that can be helpful and sustaining? 

In this two-episode series, we speak with Ben Shannahan, a narrative family therapist with Anglicare’s CYPRESS service in Western Australia, about working therapeutically with children, young people and their families when they have been impacted by the suicide of a loved one.

In this episode you will learn: 

• some ideas surrounding suicide that can be potentially unhelpful for children and families navigating the loss of a loved one [02:00]

• how to make space for children’s wisdom and creativity [05:00]

• how to help children find ways of living with the grief [14:19]

Further information and resources:

Engaging children (online learning pathway) – Emerging Minds

Below are some books and resources that the CYPRESS team have found useful in their postvention work with children, young people and families. Not all are suicide-specific but are related to helping families makes sense of experiences of grief:

• Tell me what happened – Suicide Support Services  
• Rafi’s Red Racing Car: Explaining suicide and grief to young people by Louise Moir
• The Invisible String by Patrice Karst and Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
• One Wave at a Time: A story about grief and healing by Holly Thompson
• Let’s Talk about It: A guide for talking to children after a suicide of a loved one by Laura Camerona
• When a Friend Dies: A book for teens about grieving and healing by Marilyn Gootman
• Why?: A story for kids who have lost a parent to suicide by Melissa Allen Health and Frances Ives
• After a Parent’s Suicide: Helping children heal by Margo Requarth
• Grief is an Elephant by Tamara Ellis Smith and Nancy Whitesides