Group crisis intervention in a school setting following an attempted suicide

The risk of suicide is, indeed, significant during adolescence. Regardless of whether the suicide attempt culminates in death (suicide), serious injury, minor injury, or no injury at all (parasuicides), the attempt, in and of itself, will send shock waves through any and all groups of which the adolescent was a member. These friends and family members of the adolescent who attempted suicide become the unwilling and vicarious victims of the suicide attempt. A rapid and assertive emergency mental health response to any given suicide attempt is clearly recommended. This paper reviews the phenomenon of adolescent suicide and offers a case study on the use of a rapid and efficient group crisis intervention, referred to as a Crisis Management Briefing (CMB; Everly, 2000), directed towards the vicarious victims of an adolescent suicide attempt.