Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

Section 3 Postvention After a Suicide Overview Postvention is a series of helpful acts that focus on assisting the survivors of a suicide, and it is a very challenging time for schools. Postvention activities in schools must focus on helping everyone with their shock, grief, confusion, and even guilt. A primary goal of postvention is to prevent further suicides, as unfortunately adolescents are the most prone to imitate suicidal behavior, and suicide contagion has led to suicide clusters in a number of school communities. The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) has provided grant funding to a number of school districts that experienced suicide clusters. More information about Project SERV (Schools Emergency Response to Violence) grants are available from the USDOE. The Project SERV grant application requires that schools have data on the number of suicides, suicide attempts, suicidal students referred for community mental health services, and the number of students hospitalized. Scott Poland has helped a number of school districts obtain Project SERV funds after a suicide cluster. If a student suicide has occurred in your student population, those who are in contact with the community, parents, and students must respond in an empathetic and factual way. But it is important to realize that the suicide of a student will likely have an effect far beyond the school he or she attended. Research has found that school postvention efforts were often too short and focused on too few students. The information in Tool 21 provides the steps for schools to follow after a suicide. If a student has died by suicide, school administrators should review this tool, which is based on After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools . After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools was first published in 2011 and was revised in 2018 ( afsp.org and sprc.org ) . The most recent toolkit is an excellent resource for schools, and educators are strongly encouraged to download and review the toolkit before a student suicide death. Scott Poland was involved in developing both of these resources. Florida S.T.E.P.S.