Postvention support to military suicide loss survivors: A scoping review

U.S. military suicide affects not only military service members but also military dependants and spouses. Suicide loss survivors experience a multitude of challenges pertaining to complicated grief. This scoping review of the literature aims to gain a better understanding of the psychosocial factors contributing to U.S. military suicide and to increase knowledge of effective treatment interventions available for military suicide loss survivors that will reduce suicidal ideation and self-harm behaviours and will promote healing.

The databases searched for this scoping review were EBSCOhost, PubMed, Sociology Collection, and Research Gate. The articles used for this review were published on or before November 2023. Five studies were included.

The primary outcome of this review suggests that peer support groups are a potential suicide postvention strategy. The scoping review showed a substantial gap in the research on military suicide postvention strategies. Few studies addressed the effectiveness of specific interventions.

Future research to understand the short- and long-term effectiveness of peer support groups and psychoeducational treatment interventions are recommended.