An ongoing mantra within the impacted family & friends’ community that continues to grow louder and louder. Why is this such an urgent need? It’s an urgent need because there are so many impacted family and friends who have been traumatized as they support their loved ones. We need to focus our attention to this population. Why? Because lives depend on it—because when we have resources to support building lives that matter and improving quality of life for impacted family/friends, then they can better support their loved ones in suicidal crisis.

 Much attention is given to supporting a person at risk for suicide or any form of suicidal crisis, and rightfully so. Upon discharge from an emergency department or some form of care, the family is handed brochures, checklists and safety plans – on how to take care of their loved one. Rarely does anyone ask of impacted family and friends, “Are you ok?” or wait long enough to hear the answer. Typically, the answer is, “No.” And if it’s no, then what?

 Death by suicide can impact an entire community. It is estimated that for every suicide, 135 people are impacted (Cerel, Brown, Maple, Singleton, van de Venne, Moore, & Flaherty, 2018). We know that the amount of people that have thoughts of suicide or have attempted suicide is far greater than the reported number of suicides. For every person struggling with suicide, there are impacted family members and friends that experience emotional and physical effects related to their loved one’s struggle. They may experience a lack of support, and their own mental health can suffer. While we may not know the exact number of impacted family and friends, we can only imagine the extent given the context.