Healing Tasks & Stories: A Framework for Grief Journeys After Suicide and Drug Related Deaths

Traumatic Grief, particularly grief following a suicide or drug-related-death, is different than other types of grief in a number of ways. Survivors create stories and ask questions to try to understand the loss. Providers working with people who have lost a friend or loved one to suicide or overdose have the opportunity to help reduce the impact of the potential trauma of the loss and to facilitate healthy grieving. In this training providers will learn about how suicide an overdose loss can differ from other types of loss and how to help survivors attend to the tasks of traumatic grief [1] help to help them move toward more healing versions of the stories they develop as their grief continues to change throughout their grief journey.

[1] Adapted from Jordan JR (2020) Lessons Learned: Forty Years of Clinical Work With Suicide Loss Survivors. Front. Psychol. 11:766. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00766

Objectives:

Upon completion of this training, participants will:

• Describe the scope of suicide and overdose bereavement in the US.
• Name two ways in which suicide and overdose loss differs from other types of death.
• Identify stories, tasks, and questions associated with grieving a suicide or overdose loss.
• Develop a self-care and community care plan for supporting themselves in the work.

Sponsored by:

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addictions Service, & AdCare Educational Institute, Inc.