Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

If a family member has a preexisting mental health condition it will likely be exacerbated, and substance abuse will increase. Families reported receiving less support that they deemed necessary, and the support they did receive was often poorly timed and especially ineffective for younger siblings. Research studies have also found that approximately 50 percent of the time children were not told that the cause of death was suicide. Children often find out the truth later and are upset that they were not told the truth. Bereavement was complicated when family members had deeply religious beliefs and moral convictions against suicide. Family physicians and school personnel, who are knowledgeable about helping survivors cope and the available community resources, can play a significant role in supporting the grieving family. More About the Authors Scott Poland, Ed.D., NCSP, is the director of NSU’s Suicide and Violence Prevention Office ( nova.edu/suicideprevention ) and has nearly 40 years of school experience. He was previously the Prevention Division director for the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), has worked in the aftermath of many youth suicides and led numerous teams following suicide clusters. He is the author/coauthor of five books and numerous chapters and articles about youth suicide and school crisis. He is the coauthor of the Texas Suicide Safer School Plan and Toolkit and the Montana Crisis Action School Toolkit on Suicide , as well as a 2015 book entitled Suicide in Schools , published by Routledge. He has also testified before the U.S. Congress on several occasions, focusing on school violence and youth suicide prevention. Richard Lieberman, M.A., NCSP, is a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. From 1986–2011 he coordinated the Suicide Prevention Services for Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the United States. He has coauthored numerous book chapters on suicide intervention in schools, consulted nationally with districts experiencing suicide clusters, served on the Steering Committee for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, and contributed to both the SAMHSA Preventing Suicide and SPRC/AFSP's After a Suicide school toolkits. The authors, who were both reviewers for the 2018 publication After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, can be contacted at spoland@nova.edu and richard.lieberman@lmu.edu . 93