Understanding Housing and Residential Life Staff Experiences With Student Suicide: Implications for Practice

College student suicide rates are rising, and housing and residential life staff, both professional and student staff, are more likely than other campus staff to encounter traumatic events involving students’ suicide ideations, suicide attempts, and completed suicides. This qualitative study includes the results of interviews with 11 housing and residence life staff who had experienced an on-campus completed student suicide. We sought to elicit the affected staff’s recommendations for addressing and preventing campus suicides and the resources they found valuable in responding to these traumatic events. Recommendations include annual suicide prevention training for RAs and professional staff involving the counseling center, intervention teams comprising staff from across campus, personal counseling, time away from work for affected staff, and assistance from campus chaplains and supervisors.