Conference Agenda

Suicide loss is among the most profound and complex forms of bereavement. While early estimates suggested each suicide leaves behind approximately six grieving loved ones (Shneidman 1973), contemporary research has substantially revised this figure – a single suicide can touch the lives of up to 135 people (Cerel 2019), including family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, and professional helpers. In Estonia, with approx. 200 suicides occurring annually (rate approx. 14), around 27,000 people are newly affected each year – a figure that demands sustained public health action.

Those bereaved by suicide face a distinctive constellation of challenges: complicated grief, shock, trauma, and feelings of guilt, shame and anger, alongside a significantly elevated suicide risk. Social consequences – isolation, stigma, unshared family story – further compound suffering. Existential questions about meaning and purpose can persist for years.

In Estonia, support for the bereaved is a stated priority in the Estonian National Suicide Prevention Action Plan (SETK 2025–2028). The Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute (ERSI), together with NGOs Peaasi and Elus, has played a central role in developing resources for suicide survivors – including an online peer community, a dedicated website, and a podcast series. Most recently, almost 20 qualified facilitators of suicide bereavement peer support groups were trained and for the first time, several structured survivor support groups are now running across the country.

This presentation draws on both research and lived experience – my husband took his own life almost three years ago. That experience has deeply transformed my professional perspective. I am currently writing a book – an account of what our family endured in the immediate aftermath, and how the social safety net saved us. The well-being of suicide survivors is fundamentally relational, contextual and situational. Rethinking what is possible begins here.