Suicide Bereavement in Military and their Families

Suicide is taking a devastating toll on military and veteran families. Each death by suicide leaves behind bereaved individuals, often called “survivors,” and usually relates to family relations of the deceased. While the common estimate is that there are six survivors for each death by suicide, it has become clear, especially within highly cohesive workplace environments like the military, each suicide has the potential to affect a much larger range of non-familial individuals. The current study will use an overlapping four stage study across a two year funding period. Stage 1 involves a population-based phone survey of veterans. Stage 2 involves an internet study of veterans from Stage 1 who reported exposure to any suicide, sudden traumatic death of a military colleague or no exposure. Stage 3 is an in-depth interview of exposed veterans from Stage 2. Concurrent with the other stages, Stage 4 is an in-depth interview of families of veterans or active duty military members who died by suicide.