Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force

Riverside Trauma Center’s Director, Larry Berkowitz, EdD , played a large role in the publishing of the National Guidelines For Responding To Grief,Trauma And Distress After Suicide in May.  In 2010, The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a public-private partnership, was created to advance the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Over the course of two years, its Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force worked on developing national guidelines for the United States for the creation and implementation of effective, comprehensive support programs for survivors of suicide loss. The Task Force was composed of international and national experts on suicide prevention and postvention, including Larry Berkowitz.

The Guidelines were released at the May 2015 meeting of the American Association of Suicidology. This is one of the most important documents to come out of the suicide prevention community in many years. It is being widely disseminated by groups ranging from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the American Association of Suicidology, the largest associations on suicide grief and loss nationally and internationally, and also by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Guidelines can be found at the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s website.

We are very proud to have been a part of the development of these important Guidelines in the effort to provide valuable support programs for survivors of suicide loss.

~Scott M. Bock, Founder/President/CEO