TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION the fact that suicide prevention and treatment efforts are not always successful, mental health specialists have developed what is known as postvention, coping strategies for the families and friends of suicide victims. These suicide survivors, as they are called, find ways to pick up their lives and move on, even though they do not have all the answers about the deaths of their loved ones. Most survivors say that their lives are never the same; indeed, family units and friendships are often torn apart in the search for peace.

The painful aftermath of suicide

Perhaps if teens who have committed suicide imagined the pain and suffering their deaths would cause their loved ones, they would not have gone through with their acts. Unfortunately, the suicidal mind is not so rational. In the wake of suicide, the families...