Seeking Hope: Stories of the Suicide Bereaved Available for Pre Order

Seeking Hope: Stories of the Suicide Bereaved is now available for pre order at www.chelleheadworks.com. The book will be released April 4, 2011, and features chapters written by 14 survivors of suicide around the world. Proceeds from the book benefit a fund at the American Association of Suicidology to support suicide bereavement research.

Suicide note annotation study seeks bereaved by suicide

A study through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is seeking survivors of suicide loss to help annotate (assign emotions to the words). The goal is teach computers how to predict suicide risk but first the emotions from the notes need to be annotated. There are a slew of notes that need to be annotated before the next part can begin. You would be asked to annotate 50 notes over a period of a few days through a computer link (you would not need to do them all at once). If you are interested (or know someone who might be), please email Michelle at michelle@siblingsurvivors.com. Thank you!

Faces of Suicide Web Poster

Mike Purcell, who lost his son to suicide three years ago and who recently created some posters in collaboration with the American Association of Suicidology, is looking to create a Faces of Suicide web poster. Please see his request below.

“Putting a face on suicide. I recently did a few suicide prevention posters collaborating with the American Association of Suicidology. [As seen on their AAS facebook page] I would like to do a poster-collage visually depicting this theme “Suicide occurs across ethnic, economic, social and age boundaries.” I would like to collect as many photos as possible. Please send them to me with the name, date of birth and passing of your loved one. I will keep you posted on their usage, and send you a copy of the finished product. You can email them to me at clpmemorial@gmail.com.”

An article from where the journey began

When Michelle Linn-Gust’s sister ended her life in March 1993, Michelle was a junior at Ball State University majoring in journalism. She was pulled out of a Western Civilization class by the priest of her church to be told that Denise had died. It was there that Michelle’s life-altering journey began although almost eighteen years later, she understands it’s a stop on a bigger journey. Read more in the Ball State University Journalism Alumni Newsletter.

Michelle’s Work with Native Americans and Suicide

An article about Michelle’s work with Native Americans and suicide appeared in her hometown newspaper, The Naperville Sun, today. Her quest to find hope again has been inspired by her sister Denise’s suicide in 1993 when Denise was two weeks from turning eighteen and Michelle was twenty-one.

http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/2956243-418/suicide-think-american-indians-hope.html

Break Through the Static Works to Help Bereaved by Suicide Teens

Break Through the Static, based in San Francisco, is working to help teens bereaved by suicide. Often, teens get help immediately after the suicide but sometimes they aren’t ready for it. And many times they go back to school and feel like everyone has “forgotten” what they’ve been through. Jade Chamness, who started Static, lost her father to suicide. Check out the web site here.

Coping with the Holidays

Surviving the first (or second or third…) holiday season without a sibling who has died by suicide is challenging, confusing, lonely, and possibly a million other emotions. Here’s something by Michelle Linn-Gust on the American Association of Suicidology web site about her lessons of going almost eighteen years without her sister during the holidays. If you’re on Facebook, be sure to check out the page for Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? where sharing of holiday memories is encouraged.

A Winding Road available for pre order

A Winding Road: A Handbook for Supporting the Suicide Bereaved, co-authored by Michelle Linn-Gust and John Peters, has gone to print and is now available for pre order  at www.chelleheadworks.com, amazon.com, or your favorite retailer. More about the book is offered on the Chellehead Works web site.

Michelle’s reflections on the unresolved grief in her hometown

Michelle Linn-Gust writes about the unresolved grief in her hometown of Naperville, Ill., almost eighteen years after her sister Denise’s suicide in the winter issue of the American Association of Suicidology’s Surviving Suicide here.

Rocky Roads added to AFSP’s coping with suicide biblipgraphy

Rocky Roads: The Journeys of Families through Suicide Grief has been added to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s coping with suicide bibliography here.