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• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a parent >> Lynne - Interview 26 >> Lynne tried to make sense of what had happened. She wondered if her mother’s psychotropic medicines had been withdrawn too quickly.

In 1981, when Lynne was 19, her mother drowned in the bath at home. It seems that she took her own life. Lynne felt her mother had been let down by the professionals who had been involved in her care. She has found support from friends & colleagues.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a partner, husband or wife >> Stephen - Interview 31 >> Stephen believes that many GPs lack knowledge about how to deal with depression and how to deal with a person who might be suicidal.

In June 2006 Stephen returned home to find his wife, Gill, hanging in the hallway. She had been diagnosed with severe depression. Stephen found help from family, friends & Cruse. His daughters have been helped by the Charity, See Saw.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a partner, husband or wife >> Lucy - Interview 38 >> Darrell asked the GP to refer him for talking therapy and told the GP that he would not take tablets, but she insisted on writing a prescription inste

Lucy’s partner, Darrell, committed suicide in 2005. He drove his car in front of a train. He had been depressed but his suicide was a complete shock to Lucy. She has found support through family and friends and via an online group, Widowed by Suicide.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a partner, husband or wife >> Melanie - Interview 21 >> Melanie’s GP, who she has seen every fortnight, has been a “tower of strength”. She did not ‘click with’ the first counsellor she saw but has subseque

In 2006 Melanie’s husband, Simon, took his own life while the “balance of his mind was disturbed.” He jumped to his death. Melanie and her three young children were devastated. They have found help via counselling, support groups and the internet

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a brother or sister >> Jasvinder - Interview 18 >> Jasvinder did not want to take antidepressants. She found counselling helpful because her counsellor was impartial, objective and offered unconditiona

Jasvinder’s sister, Robina, died in 1987 from burns. She had an unhappy marriage and told her husband she was going to take her own life. Jasvinder has kept her sister’s memory alive by setting up Karma Nirvana, a project that advocates for Asian people.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a partner, husband or wife >> Marion - Interview 32 >> When Marion was “at rock bottom” her GP arranged for her to see a counsellor. Counselling, once a fortnight for three years, helped her to “put her li

Marion’s husband took his own life in 1996. He had taken alcohol and analgesics and died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Marion and their four children were shocked and devastated. They found support from SOBS, professional counselling and Noah’s Ark.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a partner, husband or wife >> Paula - Interview 28 >> Paula’s GP arranged counselling for her, paid for by the NHS. She preferred to be asked questions and did not find it helpful when the counsellor ‘jus

Paula’s husband had been depressed for a number of years. In 2005 he took his own life by hanging. This was a huge shock to Paula. She had weekly counselling for 6 months. Since then she has also found the WAY foundation very helpful and supportive.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a friend >> Michael - Interview 16 >> Counselling did not help Michael but he did feel he needed time off work and to be able to use his own coping strategies.

Michael was aged 29 when his friend took his own life. It was in 1994 when his friend died in a fume filled garage. At the time Michael took time off work and found most support by talking to his friends and by supporting others who were grieving.

• Dying & bereavement >> Bereavement due to suicide >> Lost a child >> Susan - Interview 20 >> Susan urges professionals to listen to patients with mental illness and their relatives. When patients are desperate for help they must be seen quickl

In 2005, Susan’s daughter, Rose, took her own life. She shot herself. Rose had had anorexia and then depression, and was later thought to have bipolar disorder. Susan feels angry because she believes that NHS psychiatric services were inadequate.