Surviving Suicide and Opioid-related Loss: Examining Needs, Support, and Grief Trajectories

Experiencing bereavement by a sudden death – such as suicide loss, fatal overdose, or natural sudden loss – can contribute to an individual’s vulnerability for developing a variety of mental health difficulties, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mood-related disorders, and prolonged grief disorder. Difficulties with grieving a sudden death have also been linked with a risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Despite these established risks, there has been a lack of knowledge pertaining to the bereavement-related needs of sudden loss survivors.

In order to gain more understanding of the potential needs of people who have experienced a sudden bereavement, Dr. Jamison Bottomley recruited 403 sudden loss survivors to evaluate the effectiveness of the Sudden Bereavement Needs Inventory (SBNI), a new psychological measure developed by a community steering committee to assess what individuals bereaved by a sudden death need in order to overcome the difficulty of their loss. The SBNI contains twenty-two items divided into six categorical areas of needs: meaning-making, informational, emotional, pragmatic, spiritual, and relational needs. After administering the SBNI to participants, Dr. Bottomley found that the measure accurately reflected the particularities of each individuals’ burden, and that it may be useful for detecting the kinds of difficulties that uniquely underlie prolonged grief symptoms, traumatic stress reactions, and anxiety. These findings support the applicability of the SBNI for understanding suicide loss bereavement.

Citation: Bottomley, J. S., & Smigelsky, M. A. (2022). Bereavement in the Aftermath of Suicide, Overdose, and Sudden-Natural Death: Evaluating a New Measure of Needs. Assessment, 0(0), 10731911221081139, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10731911221081139