Navigating silence: Understanding the grief experiences of young men bereaved by suicide
Understanding the lived experiences of young men who have lost a close male friend to suicide
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Description
Around 75% of all suicides in NZ are in men. Young men (20-24 yrs old) have the third highest rate of suicide in NZ. The “silent epidemic” of male suicide has been largely ignored in NZ and overseas because of a lack of awareness and explanatory frameworks. Every suicide also leaves behind many suicide-loss survivors. This seminar focuses on the key findings of a descriptive phenomenological study of the lived experiences of young men (17-25 years of age) who lost a close male friend to suicide. The findings show the young men suffered, grieved, lived through and transformed in silence. This seminar will discuss these findings in relation to suicide postvention and their implications for healthcare practice. Young male suicide-loss survivors need gender-responsive care and male-friendly support that helps them navigate their grief.
Speaker Bios
Chris Bowden (Ph.D Health), MA, BA (Hons I) Dr. Chris Bowden is a lecturer in the School of Education at Victoria University of Wellington. He teaches in the area of child and adolescent mental health, human development and in the Masters of Educational Psychology programme. His research interests include suicide bereavement, grief and loss, coping, trauma and resiliency. His PhD research focused on young men’s experiences of losing a close friend to suicide.
Chris delivers professional development and education to a wide range of education, health and social service providers. He is an advocate of solutions-focused approaches and trauma-informed care and has been working in the area of suicide prevention and postvention for many years. Chris is an agent of the Regional Child and Youth Mortality Review Group which works to make recommendations to prevent deaths and improve systems and responses. Skylight Trust and Chris developed New Zealand’s first professionally-led eight-week psycho-educational programme (Waves) for adults bereaved by suicide to promote coping and resiliency after suicide.