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Support Group for Students Who Have Lost a Loved One to Suicide:

A Community Needs Assessment

Haley Beglau, Mariah Davis, Sarah King, Christen Tien

Western Washington University

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Introduction

There are over 30,000 suicides each year in the United States, but these suicides affect

more than 30,000 loved ones and people close to the individual. This is because one individual

could have had a sister, boyfriend, mother, aunt, friend, etc…and yet there are very few

professional resources that provide the necessary background, research, and tools to effectively

work with the survivors of a suicide (Jordan & McIntosh, 2010). The community of people that

have lost a loved one due to suicide is in need of counseling, healing and acknowledgement that

they are not alone in their bereavement, because these survivors may need unique counseling or

mourning groups that specifically address this type of loss (Young, Iglewicz & Zisook,

2012). There is gap in the available services provided to survivors of suicide because there is a

lack of resources for those who would like to find this support in their own community. The

grief process is always difficult, but a loss through suicide is like no other, and the grieving can

be especially complex and traumatic. “People coping with this kind of loss often need more

support than others, but may get less” (Harvard Health Publications, 2009). There is currently no

support group for those who have lost a loved one due to suicide and this has created a gap of

services for the students of Western Washington University. The implementation of a group

therapy session for Western Washington University students who have lost a loved one due to

suicide would greatly bridge this gap in services. The purpose of this report is to present the

results of a needs assessment conducted here on campus. If Western were to provide these group

counseling services then they could increase a student’s knowledge of constructive bereavement,

better understand positive grieving behavior, and overall change the healing process of a student

dealing with the loss of a loved one due to suicide.

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Background

When a loved one passes away due to suicide, the survivors are left with the long

and often agonizing mourning process. These survivors are often overlooked within a

community and consequently there tends to be a lack of resources for them to reach out

for. Those that have lost a loved one due to suicide tend to grieve longer than other types of loss.

This prolonged grief is called ‘complicated grief’, which can last years, versus ‘normal grief’,

which can usually last less than six months. Relatives and friends who have lost someone to

suicide are more susceptible to intense variations of emotions such as sadness, loneliness, anger,

depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and yearning for the deceased (Harvard Health

Publications, 2009). Because there was no specific group for those who have lost a loved one due

to suicide at Western Washington University, and there have been suicides in the student body,

there was a drive to assess whether or not students would be interested in having one or not.

Although, many survivors can attend one on one counseling sessions with

a certified therapist, this setting still lacks the support of a community. However, not just a

community that is sympathetic, but is also a community of people that truly understand

this specific type of bereavement and grief. “Suicide has been described as a “death

like no other” (Redfield-Jamison, 2006) and suicide survivors confront distinctive

bereavement issues (Jordan, 2001). Many suicide survivors that have attended general

bereavement groups report that they feel distant from other grievers and end up dropping out of

these groups because they feel that their loss is un-relatable or taboo and don’t feel welcome to

participate (Feigelman & Feigelman, 2008). With no bereavement group specially formed

around the survivors of suicide, then this population has no resources within their reach. The loss

associated with suicide entails a different type of mourning process from other types of losses

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(Jordan, 2001).

With an emphasis on the students of Western Washington University, there is not

a healing group for survivors of suicide. This community needs assessment is targeted at the

Western Washington University population to determine need of this specialized support group

for students and assess the potential for the WWU counseling center to implement a support

group into regular small group sessions. If there were to be a group that was focused on the

healing of students and the journey of their loss, then this would satisfy the gap in services. If a

therapy group for students that have lost a loved one due to suicide were provided it would

increase knowledge of how to deal with loss in daily life, expand connections with other

students, and improve mental health. This positive support that the students will receive will

enable them to become fully productive citizens of the 21st century.

Activities

The purpose of the needs assessment was to find evidence that a potential suicide loss of

a loved one group will be needed amongst the students of Western Washington University. In

order to conduct the needs assessment, the counseling center and our group collaborated to come

up with a set of questions that would allow us to evaluate the data in the most efficient

manner. These questions ask whether or not they are interested in a support group, their level of

interest, which preferred time of day that works best for them, and how many people they would

feel comfortable being in a group with. The survey can be found in Appendix 1. Through these

few simple questions, we were able to evaluate whether the interest for this group is high or low,

and how many people would actually attend a suicide loss group. We first piloted the survey by

making it on survey monkey. We then sent it to the counseling center for the approval, and tested

out our own link to make sure the survey would run smoothly. The plan of action to distribute

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the survey online through multiple outlets such as Viking Village, Facebook, and various

academic departments. Our group contacted both the heads of the human services department as

well as the psychology department as we thought this would give us the most respondents. On

Facebook, we decided to not also post the link to our personal profile, but the public groups that

are on Facebook in order to reach a larger group of people. We then posted again to ensure that

those we may have missed in the first round of distribution were able to take the quiz in the

second round of distribution. Plans were made to post posters around the campus to lead them to

the survey, but complications were considered and this may give false hope if the group is not

implemented.

A survey service was used; survey monkey, as it efficiently and quickly analyzes data as

it comes in. Initially we thought of approaching the student body in person and ask them

questions through a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions, but then decided that a survey

through media and social platforms would be more efficient. As for the purpose of the needs

assessment, a quantitative analysis was more suitable. The way we had set up our survey was to

be as concise as possible, see the level of interest the student may have for a suicide survivors

group and how many people would actually join the group. To recap, our evaluation activities

were based on a model for community assessment, not an evaluation of a program.

Results and Analysis

Of our 64 respondents, we received about 36% “yes” and 64% “no” (appendix II). The

answer yes conveyed interest for a suicide support group, no conveyed lack of interest. Many

people proceeded to answer the rest of the questions after answering “no” which was not what

we had intended, but we were able to analyze around those answers. We received a total of

seven respondents who considered themselves a four or five level of interest (appendix V); of all

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the “yes” answers that rated their interest as a level four or five, three individuals wanted a group

for early evening, and the four individuals wanted late afternoon. Only one person said in the

morning or before noon, but they also said it would depend on their schedule (appendix III).

This information was important for the Counseling Center to determine how to best

accommodate students. Based on our results, we can easily say that there would be a reasonable

turnout of students that would join this potential group as the minimum number needed to

demonstrate a need in the population according to the counseling center was five people. Of the

seven respondents, three preferred only five to seven people in the group. This means that

having more than seven people may decrease the number of individuals in attendance, thus the

results gathered would be the most ideal for attendance if the group were to actually

operate. Regarding the other respondents who said “yes” (a total of 23), many of them either had

a level of two to three interest, which means they are interested, but probably would not join a

group.

Limitations and Lessons Learned

While conducting the Needs Assessment for the Suicide Support Group at Western

Washington University, we encountered a few limitations to the research. One of the limitations

that was faced was the amount of time the researchers had to facilitate the survey. By the time

the survey had been approved and administered to the public, there was a total of two weeks for

Western Washington University students to take it. Although this has facilitated a number of

responses, it would have been more beneficial to have more time available for students to take

the survey.

An issue we faced with certifying the validity of our survey was that we did not have a

method to certify that the people taking the survey were students. Some of the places that our

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survey was posted was accessible by the general public and there were no means of making sure

only students were the ones taking the survey. This could potentially be an issue because if non-

students took the survey and had major interest participating in this suicide support group, they

would not have access to the resources to be in the group and the Counseling Center would

receive incorrect data about the amount of interest. Also, if those that took the survey said they

were interested and it showed the researchers and the Counseling Center that they had major

interest in a suicide support group like this, there was no confirmation that these students would

register to attend the suicide support group.

In addition to the limitations associated with validity of participants, of the 15,000

students on campus, only 65 students took the survey, and of that, 23 students were interested in

the support group. This small sample of students suggests that there are many more students who

would benefit from the group but did not have access to the survey.

An aspect of the survey that could have been more carefully designed would be the

addition of a clarifying statement before or after the first question. The first question of our

survey is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question that states, “Are you interested in participating in a suicide

survivor group?” Those students that answered yes were to continue the survey, and those

students that answered no did not need to finish the survey. By the omission of this clarifying

statement at the beginning of this survey, many students that were not interested in the Suicide

Support Group continued to answer the rest of the survey. This made the data that was collected

more difficult to analyze as we needed to look at the specifics of the answers from the students

that were interested in the Suicide Support Group to be implemented in the Counseling Center on

campus.

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Not only were there limitations faced regarding the survey, but there were also limitations

with our available resources. The researchers had an interest in formatting a poster or pamphlet

to get information about this survey in order to reach out to a larger community of

students. Because the needs assessment was completed for the benefit of Western Washington

University’s Counseling Center and for their facilities, the posters would have been created

through the center in their format. Since this is a program that is not yet implemented it would

be difficult to ask the Counseling Center to use resources to create a poster or pamphlet for a

Support Group that may not be implemented in this Counseling Center.

During the time that the survey was being administered to the students there had not been

a lot of activity from the interested students to be in contact with the Counseling Center. This

could potentially be because without a set date or a set Suicide Support Group, the students that

could be interested may not be yet invested in it. If the researchers were able to provide a set

date for the support group more students may be more actively interested in attending the group

and seeking out its services.

For future research endeavors it may be important to make sure that there is more time to

administer the survey as well as have more resources for making sure the survey reaches as many

students as possible. If the survey had been completed and approved sooner it would have been

able to be accessible with more time for data collection. The researchers would also need to

include more clarifying questions into their next surveys. This would limit the confusion in the

process of completing the survey for the students as well as for analyzing the data that is

gathered. Some sort of method to validate who took the survey were actually students at

Western Washington University would also be useful to the researchers and the Counseling

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Center. Confirmation from the students that are interested to attend a Suicide Support Group

would help make this group more possible.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Based on the analysis of the results from the survey, we have concluded that there would

be a sufficient amount of students who would be interested in joining this particular

group. There is a minimum requirement of participants given by the Counseling Center of five

people in each group, if the need is not high enough to recruit five people for a small group such

as this, they would not offer the group. Based on the data collected, it is recommended that a

Suicide Support Group be implemented and advertised through the Counseling Center. There is a

need for it in this community and meeting the needs of five or more students who are struggling

with the grief associated with suicide can improve their quality of life and the health of the

Western Washington University Community. This group would most likely work best if it were

kept to a small group of participants. Most of the interested individuals suggested that they

would be most comfortable in a group size of five to seven people.

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Appendix Appendix I

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Appendix II

Appendix III

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Appendix IV

Appendix V

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References

Feigelman, B., & Feigelman, W. (2008). Surviving after suicide loss: The healing

potential of suicide survivor support groups. (pp. 285-304). New York: Retrieved

from http://www3.ncc.edu/faculty/soc/feigelb/survivingafter.pdf

Jordan, J. (2001). Is suicide bereavement different? a reassessment of the literature. The

American Association of Suicidology. Retrieved from http://johnjordanphd.com/

pdf/pub/Jordan_ Is Suicide .pdf

Jordan, J., & McIntosh, J. (2010). Grief after suicide: Understanding

the consequences and caring for the survivors. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved from

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of literature for suicide support

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(2009). Left behind after suicide. Harvard Health Publications. Retrieved from http://

www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2009/

July/Left-behind-after-suicide

(2009). Supporting survivors of suicide loss. Harvard Health Publications. Retrieved from

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2009/

November/supporting-survivors-of-suicide-loss

Young, I., Iglewicz, A., & Zisook, S. (2012). Suicide bereavement and complicated grief.

(p. 177–186). California: Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

articles/PMC3384446/