Suicide Bereavement with Sports Teams

A suicide death on a sports team can have serious negative consequences for the teammates left behind. Given the short- and long-term psychological sequelae experienced by suicide loss survivors, it is critical that teams who lose a teammate to suicide are provided with comprehensive bereavement support. This practice note details the unique suicide bereavement needs of sports teams, outlines key approaches to utilize following the suicide death of a teammate, provides a framework that can be followed when conducting bereavement work with teams who lose a fellow athlete to suicide, gives an example and evaluation of suicide bereavement support provided to a high school girls athletic team following the death of their teammate, and concludes with lessons learned and future directions for suicide bereavement work with sport teams.