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Suicide Bereavement with Sports Teams

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: A suicide death on a sports team can have serious negative consequences for the teammates left behind. Given the short- and long-term psychological sequelae experienced by suicide loss survivors, it is critical that teams who lose a teammate to suicide are provided with comprehensive bereavement support. This practice note details the unique suicide bereavement needs of sports teams, outlines key approaches to utilize following the suicide death of a teammate, provides a framework that can be followed when conducting bereavement work with teams who lose a fellow athlete to suicide, gives an example and evaluation of suicide bereavement support provided to a high school girls athletic team following the death of their teammate, and concludes with lessons learned and future directions for suicide bereavement work with sport teams.

Source: Sport Social Work Journal

DOI: 10.33043/a5zf3z497

Authors: Kimberly H. McManama O'Brien, Kyra Willoughby, Anna Nilsson

Language: English

Topic: Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W4408424635

FWCI: 1.175

Cites:

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10