AAS Positive Psychology & Suicide Emerging despite the indelible wound : A positive psychological approach to understand the family functioning after adolescent suicide Christine Genest, PhD Associate Professor Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal
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Christine Genest - AAS 2014 - A positive psychological approach
Emerging despite the indelible wound : A positive psychological approach to understand the family functioning after adolescent suicide
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AAS Positive Psychology & Suicide
Emerging despite the indelible wound : A positive psychological approach to understand the family functioning after adolescent suicide
Christine Genest, PhD
Associate Professor
Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal
Plan
• Family resiliency concept
• Suicide survivors
• Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Methodology
• Results
• Future in suicidology
Family resiliency concept
• Resiliency concept:
• Social science (Werner et Smith, 1982)
• Positive psychology paradigm
• Family resiliency:
• Developped when family faces a challenging situation or a crisis
• Allow family to grows, learns and changes positively from this experience
Suicide survivors
• Particular bereaved persons:
• Violent, self-inflicted death
• Stigma, shame, culpability
• More at risk of : (Gallo, & Pfeffer, 2003; ; Jordan, 2001; Sethi, & Bhargava, 2003)
• Suicide, suicidal attemps
• PTSD
• Adolescent suicide is challenging for families because not in the natural order of things
• But:
• Lot of families were able to survive this experience and even positively change through this experience.
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Research goal:
• To understand and explain family resiliency following an adolescent suicide
• Methodology:
• Grounded theory approach based on Glaser and Strauss (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998)
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound
Adolescents presentation
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound
Families presentation
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound
Cataclysm
Lifebuoys (Inside or outside
family)
Rebounce
Emergence
Sinking
Learn
Grow
Actions (within or outside family)
Family context Social context Suicide Emotions
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Energic family
• Fast rebound and continuous emergence
• Possible interventions:
• Encourage family to invest its energy not only toward suicide, to maintain other activities like sports, hobbies.
• Let the family knows that formal support exist like bereaved groups
• Offer disponibility so family can come back for informations when needed. Make sure informations are available.
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Stunned families
• Late rebound and continuous emergence
• Usually there is a lack of lifebuoys in those families
• Possible interventions:
• Collaborate with the family to identify which lifebuoys are lacking
• Offer ressources to compensate the gap
• Identify the right time to intervene and help the family to get out of helplessness
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Combative families
• Fast rebound and discoutinuous emergence
• Usually those families face other crisis during there emergence
• Possible interventions:
• Offer long term support
• Take care of the siblings, direct them toward adapted ressources
• Draw up the inventory of all the support available within the family network
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Tenacious families • Late rebound and discountinuous emergence • Those are the families that are more in need of
professionnal support but they have the potential to grow and learn.
• Possible interventions: • Encourage siblings to relate with peers so they can
express their emotions and get the social support they need
• Ensure the relations between members of the family are healthy, especially between parents and children
• Offer long term support and collaborate with the family during the late rebound and the discontinuous emergence
• Give time to the family
Research project : Emerging despite the incredible wound • Suicide prevention field:
• Possible interventions:
• Avoid isolation, contact the family again some time after the suicide and periodically to make sure it don’t need support
• Help family to keep memories alive but not only those associated with the suicide itself
• Work with the extended family so it could support the bereaved in need.
Future in suicidology
• Look at the strenght and ressources (lifebuoys) of the survivors instead of only looking at their risk factor.
• Every survivors families have the potential to undertake the resiliency process if professionnal help and support them
References
Gallo, C.L., & Pfeffer, C.R. (2003). Children and adolescents bereaved by a
suicidal death : implications for psychosocial outcomes and interventions.
Dans R.A. King, & A. Apter (Éds.), Suicide in Children and Adolescents (pp.
294-312). Cambridge
Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory.
Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Publ Co.
Jordan, J.R. (2001). Is suicide bereavement different? A reassessment of the
literature. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 91-102.
Sethi, S., & Bhargava, S.C. (2003). Child and adolescent survivors of suicide. Crisis, 24, 4-6.
Strauss, A.L., & Corbin, J.(1998). Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SagePublications
Werner, E.E., & Smith, R.S. (1982). Vulnérable but Invincible. New