Parents to Parents: After Your Child's Suicide Attempt
Parents to Parents: After Your Child's Suicide Attempt is informed by interviews with parents and experts. The video resource was created jointly by EDC's Zero Suicide Institute and Parents to Parents, a non-profit organization that offers resources to caregivers whose child is struggling with mental health challenges or concerns. This film was made possible in part by the generous support of the Four Pines Fund.
About the Video
Right after a child makes a suicide attempt can be a deeply confusing, scary, and emotional time for parents and families. Understandably, parents may have a lot of questions or concerns. While health care professionals, school leaders, and others may have addressed many questions, often hearing directly from parents who have been there can be especially supportive.
For Parents
Hearing that your child is having thoughts of suicide or has made an attempt can be overwhelming. But you are not alone. The parents interviewed for this video have been there and understand. We hope this video offers some practical guidance for the days and weeks to come, but—more importantly—hope. People do get better, recover, and create lives worth living.
The video was created to:
Describe what parents can expect in the days and weeks following a child’s suicide-related crisis
Provide information on how to access effective treatment
Offer insights on how parents can best support their child and family
Validate the feelings that can accompany a child’s suicide-related crisis
Direct caregivers to additional supportive resources
Making the Most of the Video
The video is approximately one hour. You may want to watch the video in its entirety the first time. However, it is available in chapters for you to return to after that to re-watch specific sections. If you would like to return to specific sections, a playlist of the video that includes chapters is available at the link below.
Post-Viewing Survey
After viewing the video, please complete the survey using the link below. Your responses can help inform us as we work to improve this resource or any future resources. All survey responses gathered here are confidential and will only be shared in aggregate without identifying information when presented anywhere publicly. The survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. Thank you in advance for your participation.
For Health Care Professionals and School and Community Leaders
Families, understandably, will have many questions in the days and weeks following a suicide attempt of their child. It can be hard to process and retain all that is being told to them and available resources will vary community by community. This video captures many of the questions raised by parents and describes best practices in suicide care so that parents can best navigate a complex health care system.
By hearing from parents whose child has made a suicide attempt as well as national experts in suicide prevention, parent’s feelings are validated and they can be directed to quality care that best supports their child. This video is not meant to replace any care provided in the community, rather, will hopefully serve to augment care provided by health care professionals as parents can return to it again and again.
Who can disseminate this video?
Emergency departments, inpatient hospitals, residential care, crisis services, mobile crisis units, community mental health providers, pediatricians, schools, substance misuse professionals, peer advocates, faith leaders, anyone who has encountered a family whose child has recently made a suicide attempt or talked about suicide. Add the video link to discharge paperwork and planning or share the link with parents as part of medical or behavioral health care.
Below, we have provided a curated list of supplemental resources for additional support.