A Special Scar: The Experiences of People Bereaved by SuicideEvery 85 minutes someone in the UK takes their own life, but what happens to those left behind? In a society where suicide is often viewed with fear or disapproval, it can be difficult for those personally affected by a suicide death to come to terms with their loss and seek help and support. A Special Scarlooks in detail at the stigma surronding suicide and offers practical help for survivors, relatives and friends of people who have taken their own life. Fifty bereaved people tell their own stories, showing us that, by not hiding the truth from themselves and others, they have been able to learn to live with the suicide, offering hope to others facing this traumatic loss. This new, revised edition includes new material on: * counselling survivors of suicide * group work with survivors. The new material incorporates the latest research findings which have added significantly to our understanding of the impact of suicide, an area which the UK Government has targeted for action in the mental health arena. This new edition will continue to be an invaluable resource for survivors of suicide as well as for all those who are in contact with them, including police and coroner's officers, bereavement services, self-help organisations for survivors, mental health professionals, social workers, GPs, counsellors and therapists. Alison Wertheimer has been working as a freelance writer and researcher since 1987, after working in the voluntary sector for twenty years. She has a private counselling practice, is a supervisor with a bereavement counselling service and runs workshops on the impact of suicide bereavement. |
Contents
Survivors of suicide | 17 |
Part 2 | 25 |
Meeting the survivors | 35 |
Looking back | 53 |
Why did it happen? The search for understanding | 66 |
The inquest 79 | 79 |
Funerals | 90 |
The impact of suicide on individual family members | 108 |
Facing the feelings | 149 |
Finding a way through | 166 |
Meeting the needs of survivors | 181 |
Groups for people bereaved by suicide | 196 |
Counselling people bereaved by suicide | 215 |
Postscript | 237 |
The people interviewed | 244 |
Name index | 257 |
Other editions - View all
A Special Scar: The Experiences of People Bereaved by Suicide Alison Wertheimer Limited preview - 2001 |
A Special Scar: The Experiences of People Bereaved by Suicide Alison Wertheimer No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
able accept anger Barraclough bereaved by suicide blame body Carol chapter child Clark and Goldney Colin Murray committed suicide cope copycat suicides coroner coroner's officer counselling counsellor daughter dead person deceased depression described difficult discovered distress Dunne Dunne-Maxim emotional event experience experienced face family members father felt funeral going grief grieving guilt happened Hawton husband impact of suicide inquest issues killed lives London look loss McIntosh mental health mother never offer pain parents particularly perhaps person who died police Psychiatry psychotherapist reactions realised relationship relatives responsible role Samaritans self-harm sense sessions Shneidman siblings sister social someone sometimes sort spoiled identity Staudacher suggests suicide bereavement suicide deaths suicide survivors support groups survivor feels survivor groups Survivor guilt survivors may feel survivors of suicide talk Tavistock Clinic therapist therapy things thought told traumatic trying understand Ursula verdict