The Department of Defense’s Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness recently released an inaugural Annual Suicide Report (ASR). Along with data regarding suicides among Active Component, Guard and Reserve Service members, it also included the first ever number of suicide deaths among military spouses and dependents. According to the ASR, there were 186 reported military family member suicide deaths in CY17.
The Internet has become an increasingly powerful form of information dissemination and communication media over the last two decades. Even more recently, the Internet has been leveraged for the treatment of a wide range of health-related problems. All the while, social media platforms have been increasingly used for the expression of suicidal thoughts and feelings. Despite this, little is known about the ways in which social media can be used for suicide prevention (Karras et al., 2018).
Grieving the death of a loved one is never easy. When someone dies by suicide, there can be additional challenges and emotions for those left behind. Many people are profoundly affected when someone dies by suicide, including family, friends, co-workers, and providers. In fact, entire communities can be affected by a suicide loss. Given what we know about the effects of suicide loss, having access to suicide postvention resources is critical to supporting suicide loss survivors.
Language is important, essential to everyday living. Our word choices matter as we communicate to others and in the context of suicide prevention, language can mean life or death. With the potential for such dire consequences, how we speak about suicide is critical. In today’s blog, I will share what language is no longer recommended when talking about suicide, as well as what words or phrases are preferred.
Beginning to Heal is a book by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis which focuses on the ways one can recover from childhood sexual abuse. This book is based on the book called The Courage to Heal.