Grief and guilt: losing a loved one to suicide

When Blake's dad died by suicide, it came as a complete shock. Overwhelming grief, combined with confusion and guilt — it uprooted his life. The loss made him rethink his own mental health, and eventually, channel that into the community — fundraising and taking on three world records.Today, we're talking about suicide bereavement; how it can affect family and friends, its long lasting impacts on mental health, and how to support someone going through the experience. It can be really tricky to talk about suicide, so how do you tackle talking to kids about this kind of loss?Also, why are rates of suicide not going down, despite millions spent on prevention? And why do some people experience something called post-traumatic growth while others don't?This episode discusses suicide, grief and mental illness in depth. Please take care while listening.Guests:Blake JohnstonFormer pro surferSurf CoachMental Health advocateAuthor, SwellbeingAssociate Professor Karl AndriessenPrincipal Research Fellow, Centre for Mental Health and Community WellbeingMelbourne School of Population and Global HealthUniversity of MelbourneTanja HirvonenClinical psychologistChief Executive Officer, ThirriliBoard Director, Australian Indigenous Psychologists AssociationBoard Director, Black Dog InstituteCredits:Presenter/producer: Sana QadarProducer: Rose KerrSenior producer: James BullenSound engineer: Harvey O'SullivanThanks to freesound.org users tim.kahn and juskiddinkSupport and resources:Lifeline 13 11 14Thirrili 1800 805 80113 YARN 13 92 76Beyond Blue  1300 22 4636StandBy Support 1300 727 247Roses in the oceanMore information:Coping With A Parent's SuicideAlarming rise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide ratesA better way: suicide prevention in First Nations communitiesYou can catch up on more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar, exploring the psychology of topics like stress, memory, communication and relationships on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.