After rural suicide: A guide for coordinated community postvention response.

Rural areas of California often experience higher rates of suicide deaths than urban areas. Suicide hits rural communities hard, affecting a large proportion of people where “everybody knows everybody” and resources may be sparse. Postvention is the process of providing support to help loss survivors and the community at large heal after a suicide occurs. A postvention response plan can help reduce the likelihood of contagion and help organizations and individuals to respond both promptly and appropriately. Although postvention guides exist for schools, until now no guide has been designed to address the needs of rural areas. This new guide, funded by the Central Region WET Coordinators and created by CalMHSA, provides a framework to creating a coordinated plan to mobilize support. This guide is intended to assist communities with developing a postvention response after suicide. It is designed with smaller, rural communities in mind but the considerations and steps outlined can also be taken in larger communities.

Contact us for a copy of this article, or view online at https://www.cibhs.org/pod/after-rural-suicide