Advice for parents and carers after a suicide

Anna Wardley, founder of the Luna Foundation, has created this guide for the Portsmouth City Council which has been designed to help to support parents or caregivers whose children have lost someone to suicide. The guide details how they can access specialist resources and services that are available for families who have experienced this certain type of loss. Suicide can be a very difficult topic to approach especially when it comes to talking about it with children or young people and as Dr Diana Sands has said, “children need reassurance that they are loved and that nothing they did caused the death” so this is a great resource in order to help guide you through this. 

The guide covers myth busting surrounding suicide, tips on how to support children after suicide bereavement including advice on what to say and what not to say. There is also a section providing resources that have been made especially for children and young people who have been bereaved by suicide such as books, booklets and signposting to charities. 

We think that this is a great guide that is easy to follow and provides lots of information. This could be useful for adults who are supporting children and young people with this type of grief and provides important advice and materials all in one place. 

You can download the guide here.