St. Louis Area Survivors of Suicide Response Team

Each year  about 200 suicides are completed in the St. Louis area.  For each completed suicide, an estimated six people - family and friends - are intimately affected, making them 'survivors' of suicide. Thus, each year at least 1,200 St. Louisans join the ranks of survivors of suicide.

Survivors often struggle for years, with the guilt and grief that death by suicide leaves in its wake.  Many survivors agree that a "peer-postvention" service would have been helpful, offering immediate comfort, preparedness information, and hope that they too can survive their loss.

SSRT strives to identify, engage, support and educate survivors as soon as possible following their loss.  Team members are trained peer survivors, counselorss, social workers, and community service providers who visit with newly bereaved individuals and families.  They will:

1.  Share the message that surviving the tragedy of suicde is possible.                                                           2.  Promote resiliency through caring, availability and understanding.                                                          3.  Explain the grief process, stages of mourning, and what to emotionally expect.                                 4.  Help survivors cope with the difficulties and unique challenges that follow suicide.                         

Our mission is to reduce the risk of suicide in survivors of suicide, aid them in coping with their grief, and assist them in their ability to resume their lives with minimal negative impact by reaching out and instilling hope through listening, providing encouragement, sharing experiences, and linking them with available resources to best survive their loss.

Kids Under Twenty One

Life Crisis Services

Mental Health Assn. of Greater St. Louis

NAMI St. Louis

"The suffering of the suicidal is private and inexpressible, leaving family members, friends and colleagues to deal with an almost unfathomable kind of loss, as well as guilt. Suicide carries in its aftermath a level of confusion and devastation that is, for the most part, beyond description."

Kay Redfield Jamison                                              

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is the only national not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, and to reaching out to people with mood disorders and those affected by suicide.

The goal of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is to understand and prevent suicide. 
Founded in 1968 by Edwin S. Shneidman, Ph.D., AAS promotes research, public awareness programs, public education, and training for professionals and volunteers. In addition, AAS serves as a national clearinghouse for information on suicide.                           

The membership of AAS includes mental health and public health professionals, researchers, suicide prevention and crisis intervention centers, school districts, crisis center volunteers, survivors of suicide and a variety of lay persons who have an interest in suicide prevention. 
AAS, a not-for-profit organization, encourages and welcomes both individual and organizational members.