After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt

After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt is a one-hour film providing support and guidance for parents and caregivers after their child has attempted suicide.

 

 

About the Film

The aftermath of a child’s suicide attempt can be a deeply confusing, scary, and emotional time for parents and caregivers. While healthcare professionals, school leaders, and others may address many of their questions, hearing directly from parents who have been there can be especially supportive.

"Many parents and caregivers have needed this for a very, very long time" — Viewer

After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt is a free resource for providers, schools, and community organizations to share with parents and caregivers after their child has attempted suicide. The one-hour film answers questions often raised by caregivers and describes best practices in suicide care that parents can go back to in the days and weeks following their child’s suicide-related crisis. The film is not meant to replace care from providers but rather to augment care from professionals, as caregivers can return to it again and again.

See the Trailer

How to Share

Audience

After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt is helpful for any parent or caregiver whose child has recently made a suicide attempt or talked about suicide. Emergency departments, inpatient hospitals, residential care, crisis services, mobile crisis units, community mental health providers, pediatricians, schools, substance misuse professionals, peer advocates, faith leaders, and other community organizations can all play a role in adding the video to their toolbox of supports for caregivers. 

Film & Resources

You may directly share the film with parents and caregivers by linking them to the Watch the Film tab above. In addition to the film, we have curated a set of resources for parents and caregivers as well as the healthcare providers, educators, and community organizations who support them. These resources can be accessed via the More Resources tab.

Additional Materials

The following tools are intended to help start a conversation with parents and caregivers who may be able to benefit from the After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt film:

After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt was created jointly by Zero Suicide at EDC 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.

 

Watch the Film

Learning that your child is having thoughts of suicide or has made an attempt can be overwhelming. But you are not alone. After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt captures many of the questions and feelings that caregivers may experience.

"Very tactile and tangible. When any of us go through a traumatic experience, we want to know what we have to do, what do I do next?" — Viewer

The parents interviewed for this film have all had a child in suicidal crisis and understand the complex emotions and challenges that follow. They are joined by experts in suicide care and prevention. Together, their insights offer caregivers practical guidance for the days and weeks after an attempt and—most importantly—messages of hope. People do get better, recover, and create lives worth living.

The intention of this film is to:

  • Describe what to 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 and caregivers can best support their child and family
  • Validate the feelings that can accompany a child’s suicide-related crisis
  • Direct parents and caregivers to additional supportive resources

Film & Chapters

The film is one hour long. You may want to watch the film in its entirety the first time. It is also available in chapters for you to return to specific sections.

Return to a Specific Chapter

Chapter 1: Introduction

Provides context for After Your Child's Suicide Attempt film.

Chapter 2: You Are Not Alone

Introduces parents of children who have been through a suicidal crisis. 90% of those who attempt suicide do not go on to die by suicide.

Chapter 3: Your Emotions

Acknowledges complex and challenging emotions of caregivers: guilt, panic, fear, numbness, feeling like a failure. 

Chapter 4: Understanding Your Child

Highlights the factors that may contribute to a child’s suicidal thoughts, and that parents’ anger is at the situation, not their child. 

Chapter 5: Don't Blame

Delves into common feelings of caregiver guilt and the myth that good parents would not have children who attempt suicide. 

Chapter 6: Understanding a Suicidal Episode

Conveys that suicidality is like a storm in a young person’s head and highlights teen brain development as a factor. 

Chapter 7: Hospitalization and Parental Rights

Highlights parental rights and limitations of consent; provides advice to caregivers of young people over 18. 

Chapter 8: The Safety Plan

Explains what a safety plan is and the importance of decreasing access to methods the child mentions having considered. 

Chapter 9: Bringing Your Child Home

Acknowledges fear and provides advice to caregivers on engaging with and supporting their child after a suicidal crisis. 

Chapter 10: After Hospitalization

Provides practical steps on aftercare appointments with different kinds of providers, things to research and therapies to ask about, how parents can seek support for themselves. 

Chapter 11: Establishing Communication

Offers strategies for caregivers to connect with their child such as safety scale, reflective listening, ways to empathize and create paths for open sharing. 

Chapter 12: Establishing Communication

Provides examples and approaches for parents to ask their child if they are suicidal, and to listen empathetically. 

Chapter 13: Ask the Question

Highlights the need for all caregivers to be on the same page, provides guidance for including siblings in the conversation, encourages asking the child who they are ok sharing with. 

Chapter 14: Back to School

Offers practical advice for parents to advocate for their child with schools, as well as balancing caring and safety with trusting their child to engage in activities they enjoy. 

Chapter 15: Self-Care

Provides concrete ideas for how caregivers can take care of themselves and find peer supports. 

Chapter 16: There is Hope

Emphasizes that most people do recover and encourages parents to focus on the sparks of progress. 

After the Film

We Want to Hear from You

After watching the film, please complete this 5-minute survey. Your responses can help us improve this and future resources. All survey responses gathered here are confidential and will only be shared in aggregate without identifying information when presented publicly. Thank you in advance for your participation.

Get More Support

We have curated a set of resources for parents and caregivers as well as the healthcare providers, educators, and community organizations who support you.

Spread the Word

If you would like to help spread the word about the film, we have recommendations and resources available.

After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt was created jointly by Zero Suicide at EDC 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.

 

More Resources

The following resources are available for parents and caregivers after a child’s suicide attempt, as well as for providers, schools, and community organizations that support them. They may be used alongside After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt.
 
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After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt was created jointly by Zero Suicide at EDC 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.