Doctoral Student: Ramandeep Kaur
Director of Studies & Lead Research Supervisor: Dr Jacqui Stedmon
Second Research Supervisor: Dr Cordet SmartSuicide is widely known to negatively impact upon the lives of the bereaved. Traditionally, quantitative methods have been employed to study this impact, yielding limited findings that do not go beyond a symptomatic level. Further, the exploration inclines towards a limited focus upon acute grief. This narrow focus and the paucity of previous qualitative studies, has instigated the current study to explore from a phenomenological perspective, the longer-term impact of suicide bereavement. Semi-structured interviews were completed with eight suicide-survivors. The data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A notable finding was that suicide-survivors employed defensive processes to help keep grief away, which resulted in grief becoming burdensome for up to many decades. Another key finding was that bereavement by suicide shattered the assumptive world of suicide-survivors, having a life-time impact on their ways of relating to themselves and others. The role of subsequent life events and secondary losses and gains from the bereavement was also impactful in the longer-term. This study concludes that bereavement by suicide does continue to have an impact upon the lives of survivors for five, nine and even thirty years on. Clinical and research implications are discussed
