Suicide Postvention in the Workplace (Second in a Series)

Tags

Barbara Rubel, Carson J Spencer Foundation, Griefwork, suicide, suicide in the workplace

By Barbara Rubel, Guest Blogger

Workplaces may be dealing with natural deaths such as cancer, influenza or heart attack, as well as organizational transitional changes such as team restructuring, reassignments, and relocations. Anticipatory deaths and non-death related losses can trigger a climate of grief among workers. Suicide is another story.

In the first article in this series, I focused on what a workplace needs to have in place before a suicide. This part focuses on the questions an organizational planning group asks during the bereavement policy planning process.

During the planning process, the group’s focus is on suicide-loss guidelines and practices currently in place; the organization’s current immediate response to suicide-loss; those individuals involved in the current bereavement protocol; organizational internal support systems; and the necessary suicide bereavement related forms needed such as a “suicide bereavement policy statement”; “bereavement allowance benefit request after a suicide”; “internal notification of suicide memo”; and “employee needs interview”.

Here are 10 questions an organizational planning group typically asks while developing a suicide bereavement policy:

* What guidelines and practices are currently in place when employees experience the suicide death of a significant person?

* Based on your organization’s current immediate response to suicide-loss in the workplace, what should be changed?

* What individuals (human resource generalists, leaders, management, grieving employees) are involved in the current bereavement protocol after a suicide?

* What are your organizational internal support systems (employee assistance programs, human resources, managers) and external support systems (healthcare and victim assistance professionals, suicide hotline numbers, community chaplains, and funeral aftercare providers) that can support employees after a suicide?

* Are you aware of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, physical and spiritual grief reactions suicide-loss survivors can experience upon returning to work?

* What types of sympathy gifts can your organization/colleagues send to comfort and support grieving employees and/or their family members after a suicide?

* What goes into a “Suicide Bereavement Policy Statement”?

* Why should employees complete a “Bereavement Allowance Benefit Request” after a suicide?

* What should be included in an organizational leader’s “Internal Notification of Suicide Memo” to employees?

* To ease grieving employees reentries into their workplaces, what questions need to be asked of them during an “Employee Needs Interview”?

The Carson J Spencer Foundation notes that protocols must be in place that carefully coordinate employee communication in consultation with their HR management and policies and procedures in cases of suicide. The suicide bereavement policy planning process is key in helping organizational leaders faced with the problem of lost productivity and on-the-job errors caused by bereaved suicide-loss survivors and the financial cost of bereavement after a suicide.

Postvention and grief in the workplace expert, Barbara Rubel, MA, BCETS, has been helping the EAP community for many years, presenting keynotes, workshop and trainings across the U.S. Her website is http://www.griefworkcenter.com

 

 

Robin Williams: Has it really been a Year?

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Carson J Spencer Foundation, Robin Williams, Sally Spencer-Thomas, suicide awareness

Author’s note: Robin Williams’ death last year had the mental health world abuzz about suicide awareness. On the one-year anniversary of his death, and as this post notes, suicide IS preventable, and there are plenty of good resources available to help those in need, such as the ones listed at the end of this post. A good friend of mine – the best man at my wedding in fact – took his life in April 2008… but it doesn’t have to be too late for someone you know who is struggling in life. Help IS readily available!

By Guest Blogger Sally Spencer-Thomas

On August 11, 2014, we lost Robin Williams. He was a brilliant actor and comic… a man most of us grew up with. We knew him as a funny guy, an alien, a genie, a nanny, an inspirational teacher, and so much more. We also knew he struggled with depression, addiction, and possibly bipolar disorder.
Collectively, we grieve for his loss. Williams had an uncanny ability to make us smile. Even when playing more dramatic roles, he brought light, laughter, and inspiration to our lives.

Every Suicide Death is Preventable
We grieve, too, for thousands of other people who have died by suicide. Fathers, mothers, sisters, daughters, sons, brothers… suicide isn’t just about the person who dies. Its painful ripples spread far and wide, affecting every one of us.
We believe every suicide death is preventable, that not another person should die in desperation and alone. Those with behavioral health challenges like Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia possess suicide rates 10 to 15 times greater than the general population. Yet, millions survive, and many find a way to thrive. Recovery is possible!

Cancer Awareness
The bitter irony of Williams’ death was the support he gave for another disease that takes lives: cancer. Williams was a strong backer of St. Jude’s Research Center and Stand Up to Cancer. He would visit cancer patients, sometimes in their own homes, bringing joy into lives that would invariable be cut short, just as Williams’ has.
The cancer prevention movement has been so effective in getting people involved — in prevention, in fundraising, in advocacy. Now many people — whether or not they’ve been directly affected by cancer — Stand Up in solidarity to help fight the battle. They stand shoulder to shoulder with people who are fighting for their lives. They stand to honor those who’ve passed with dignity.

They got people like Robin Williams to lean in, and say “I care. What can I do to help?” The suicide prevention movement can learn a lot from the successes of the cancer prevention movement.
How has the cancer prevention movement achieved these goals? They did this by advancing science and promoting stories of hope and recovery. Those who want to stand up for suicide prevention can do this, too.
As Dr. Sean Maguire in the movie “Good Will Hunting,” Williams counsels Matt Damon’s character Will Hunting on life, love, and grief before telling him, “Your move, chief.”

Stand Up for Suicide Prevention
Now it’s our move. Let’s honor Williams’ memory and that of every person who has died by suicide, by making suicide a thing of the past. What can you do to Stand Up for suicide prevention?

* Reach out and ask others who may be going through difficult life challenges. “Are you okay? What can I do to support you?” Let them know they are not alone and that you can help them link to resources.

* Promote the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255) everywhere — schools, workplaces, faith communities, neighborhoods.

* Volunteer and participate in suicide prevention work like community walks, town hall meetings, crisis line support and more.

* Donate to suicide prevention organizations.

* Learn the real facts about suicide and the strategies that have been shown to prevent suicide.

* Then bring others into the circle – your health care providers, your employer, your educators, and so on. Elevate the conversation and make suicide prevention a health and safety priority.

* Ask your health care plan and provider to join you.

As a society we’ve stood up for so many other important things. It’s time for us to stand up to suicide. When we all stand up and move together, we create a movement. Together our voices can create significant change in systems, in policy, in funding, and in the general view of suicide. We can restore dignity and offer hope and empowerment and save lives.

Members of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention:

* David Covington, LPC, MBA, Recovery Innovations & Zero Suicide Advisory Group
* John Draper, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline & the Way Forward Suicide Attempt Survivors Task Force
* Mike Hogan, Hogan Health Services & Zero Suicide Advisory Group
* Sally Spencer-Thomas, Carson J Spencer Foundation, ManTherapy.org and Workplace Task Force/Suicide Loss Survivors Task Force
* Eduardo Vega, Mental Health Association of San Francisco & The Way Forward Suicide Attempt Survivors Task Force

RESOURCES INCLUDE:

http://www.actionallianceforsuicideprevention.blogspot.com
http://www.mantherapy.org
http://www.carsonjspencer.org

The ‘Invisible’ Barrier

Tags

Active Minds, Attention Deficit Disorder, Carson J Spencer Foundation, depression, Mental Health America, Mental Health Month, Nationall Alliance on Mental Illness

“Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all.” – Bill Clinton

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Many disabilities are readily apparent. There’s no question that an individual who is blind requires the use of a cane or service animal to get around or that a person unable to walk will need a wheelchair or motor scooter. However, other disabilities aren’t as obvious. Mental health impairments are among the most “invisible” and least understood disabilities, even though they are also among the most common.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately 58 million Americans, or one in four adults, experience a mental health impairment in a given year. NAMI defines a mental health impairment as, “a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning.”

I can count myself among these Americans. During a rough period in my life in which I was out of work for nearly a year, I was finally diagnosed with depression and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in spring 2002. I wish I had done so earlier, but then again who knew? For years I just thought that’s who I was and had to live with it… even though I grew increasingly envious of people who laughed and enjoyed life while I struggled to even smile. I knew being out of work was “part of it”, I mean, how many people are happy and bubbly when they’re unemployed? Still, who doesn’t have some peaks and valleys in their lives? And yet, most people seem to “bounce back” from problems quite well. Not me.

I began to realize there was more to what was going on than just being “out of work.” They say that most of us going through a major life issue grow “sick and tired, of being sick and tired,” and so I sought the assistance of my wife’s EAP, which eventually resulted in my diagnosis. What a revelation! It went a LONG way toward explaining why I was having so many work-related problems; issues that crossed over into my personal life as well. I’ll never forget how I felt when I started my medication…it was as if a veil had been lifted from my eyes. “So this is how I’m SUPPOSED to feel!” I thought. “No wonder other people are happier and enjoy life more!”

I whole heartedly encourage ANYONE who even suspects something might be amiss with themselves mentally (or someone they know for that matter)  to get checked out! It is a tremendous shame that bias and stigma remain barriers to mental health that need to be overcome – barriers that are at the heart of what Mental Health Month is all about. (This important observance is noted in the month of May.)

People wouldn’t leave a broken arm or a sprained ankle unattended, so why do some folks feel (men especially) that mental health is something they can just “tough out”?!  You can no more resolve depression or other disorders than you could that untreated arm or ankle! Mental health IS health!  And in this day and age, help is just a mouse click away.

Mental Health America offers a tool-kit that includes fact sheets, a poster, calendar of mental health tips, materials to use with the media and on social media, and more! Download an overview at: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/sites/default/files/MHA%20B4Stage4%20Overview.pdf

Other resources include:

National Alliance on Mental Illness — http://www.nami.org

Carson J Spencer Foundation – http://www.carsonjspencer.org

MentalHealth.gov –  http://www.mentalhealth.gov

Active Minds — http://www.activeminds.org/issues-a-resources/mental-health-resources

Germanwings Flight 9525 Follow-up: The Focus SHOULD be on Stigma

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American Association of Suicidology, Andreas Lubitz, Carson J Spencer Foundation, Dr. Thomas Joiner, Germanwings Flight 9525, suicide

Each year, 800,000 people in the world die by suicide (WHO). That is the equivalent of at least five Boeing 747 jets crashing and killing all 416 passengers every single day.

Guest blog by Jess Stohlmann-Rainey with the Carson J Spencer Foundation – http://www.carsonjspencer.org

When incidents like the Germanwings plane crash happen, I have to put my mental armor on. I have to prepare to defend myself as a person living with a mental health condition and my work as a suicide prevention advocate. I get ready for everything from micro-aggressions to outright bigotry. One of the most challenging dynamics as a suicide prevention worker, mental health advocate, and person living with a mental health condition is the pervasive and dangerous hold that stigma about mental illness has on the minds of the public. These paradigms mark people with mental health conditions as unpredictable, untreatable, and dangerous. On a good day, this can be an annoyance. On a bad day, it can be paralyzing or even life-threatening.

Why people die by suicide is complex, but it is not mysterious or unpredictable. Many people have devoted their careers to exploring exactly these issues. People die by suicide because conditions in their life have led them to feel alone, like they are a burden, and have acquired the capacity to die. If you want to learn more about this “why” question, the knowledge is out there. I recommend reading Dr. Thomas Joiner’s work or the American Association of Suicidology’s Journal, “Suicide & Life Threatening Behavior.”

Most Media Coverage Looks for a Sensational Answer
Following tragedies like the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash, most media coverage focuses on “why?” and looks for the most sensational answer. The desire to understand why tragic events occur makes a lot of sense to me. The truth is we are unlikely to discover every detail about an individual’s decision to die by suicide, especially if we begin looking after their death. We are never going to know the perfect storm of conditions that led to this tragedy; we will never be able to catalog exactly what went through Andreas Lubitz’ mind before his death. More importantly, we are likely asking the wrong questions. What we do uncover when we look for these answers, tells us more about a broken culture around mental health than about the events that occurred.

MANY People Die by Suicide – Where is the Public Outcry?
Each year, 800,000 people in the world die by suicide (WHO). That is the equivalent of at least five Boeing 747 jets crashing and killing all 416 passengers every single day. Over one hundred of those passengers would be U.S. citizens (CDC). This doesn’t even begin to address suicide attempts, which are happening at 25 times the rate of deaths. Where is the public outcry? Why isn’t our media appalled by these tragedies? Who decided that these lives lost are less news-worthy?

The death of Andreas Lubitz has awakened powerful responses from the public, ranging from grief to outrage. I believe much of this response has been misplaced.

We should be feeling the poignant loss of each person that dies in isolation and despair. Every 40 seconds, we should feel the grief of yet another preventable death. There should be heartbreak over the hundreds of thousands of people who agonize silently through suicidal intensity. We should be grieving for the survivors whose worlds are radically altered by these losses.

There should be outrage. We should be angered to our very core that so many people are suffering and dying alone and afraid. We should be irate that people who have diagnosable and treatable health conditions are so afraid of the consequences of disclosure that help is beyond their reach. We should be horrified that stigma is so deeply ingrained in our cultures that preventable deaths are occurring again and again.

Action Steps
And after we feel all of these things, we need to act.

* Speak up when you hear shaming, blaming, or discriminatory language used about people living with mental health conditions.

* Challenge the media to use the resources available to them to cover suicide and mental health safely and with compassion.

* Use our voices and votes to tell our governments to treat these issues like they are important public health concerns. Tell them to provide funding for and collect data about mental health, suicide, and prevention strategies.

* Demand that our prisons and criminal justice system reform to provide support and recovery opportunities for the 70% of inmates who need treatment instead of using incarceration as a form of social control.

* Advocate for our young people by helping schools and youth development programs implement best practice suicide prevention and mental health promotion programs that will change the culture of stigma for future generations.

* Create workplaces that can be spaces of productivity and connectedness, safe guarding employees and connecting them to early effective care so they do not become a part of the 70% of suicide decedents who are working aged.

* Use discourse to engage your friends and family in productive conversations about mental health and suicide. Focus on hope, help, and resources. One hundred one-minute conversations can change the world.
Put on your armor with me. Every minute of our inaction is costing people their lives. We need to stop responding to deaths after they have already happened. We need to stop looking for someone to blame. It is time to take responsibility for the culture we have been creating. It is time to confront the real enemy head on.

****

Jess Stohlmann Rainey is CJSF’s Senior Program Director. Prior to coming to CJSF, Jess was a youth worker and advocate for five years, and previously managed sexual assault and domestic violence advocacy and LGBT youth center programs. Her work focused on skill and leadership development to improve the life skills of underrepresented groups as well as advocating for policy and cultural change within political and educational institutions. Jess has presented nationally at conferences on topics of youth engagement, leadership, gender, sexuality and violence prevention strategies.

Additional note: The author of the Impact blog lost a good friend to suicide in April 2008.

Mental Health Matters

Tags

American Association of Suicidology, Carson J Spencer Foundation, suicide, warning signs, Working Minds

September 8-14 is National Suicide Prevention Week.

The American Association of Suicidology’s Consensus Warning Signs:

Are you or someone you love at risk of suicide? Get the facts and take action. Call 911 or seek immediate help from a mental health provider when you hear, say or see any one of these behaviors:

* Someone threatening to hurt or kill themselves.

* Someone looking for ways to kill themselves: seeking access to pills, weapons or other means.

* Someone talking or writing about death, dying or suicide.

Seek help by contacting a health health professional or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for a referral should you witness, hear or see anyone exhibiting any one or more of these behaviors:

* Hopelessness

* Rage, anger, seeking revenge

* Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking

* Feeling trapped – like there’s no way out

* Increasing alcohol or drug use

* Withdrawing from friends, family or society

* Anxiety, agitation, unable to sleep, or sleeping all the time

* Dramatic changes in mood

* No reason for living; no sense of purpose in life.

RESOURCES INCLUDE:

Carson J Spencer Foundation – http://www.carsonjspencer.org

American Association of Suicidology — http://www.suicidology.org

Working Minds — http://www.workingminds.org

 

Innovative Program is ‘Manning up’ Mental Health

Tags

Carson J Spencer Foundation, Man Therapy, mental health, Sally Spencer-Thomas, suicide

By Sally Spencer-Thomas, Jarrod Hindman & Joe Conrad

Dr. Rich Mahogany is a character created to “man up” mental health and help men of working age think about their emotional problems from a different perspective. The tools offered by Man Therapy provide employee assistance professionals with an innovative method to reach men who might not otherwise use mental health services.

The team behind this mental health program designed it as an “upstream” approach to stem the tide of tens of thousands of men who die by suicide each year. The team, a public-private, nonprofit partnership is comprised of Colorado’s Office of Suicide Prevention, Cactus Marketing Communications, and the Carson J Spencer Foundation   http://www.carsonjspencer.org

In addition, research discovered that workplaces needed training, just like CPR, to help co-workers identify suicidal distress and refer to helpful resources such as   http://www.WorkingMinds.org    Because of these discoveries, the mental health program “Man Therapy” needed not only to target men but also to reach the people who surrounded men in crisis.

This is a brief overview of two articles that appear in the February 2014 Employee Assistance Report. For more information, or to order a free copy, visit  the “Employee Assistance Professionals” link at   http://www.impact-publications.com