Children who experience a parent’s suicide are vulnerable to an increased risk for mental health disorders and suicide attempts. In this study, 17 adults, each a child survivor of their parent’s suicide, shared their perceptions of support following the suicide. Helpful experiences included opening communication about suicide and offering individualized support. Unhelpful experiences included judgment and blame, silence regarding suicide, and a heightened awareness of the surviving parent’s challenges. Individuals most helpful in meeting the child’s needs included those with pre-existing relationships. In particular, our findings emphasizes the critical need for honest, open, and age-appropriate communication about the parent’s suicide.

Children who experience a parent’s suicide are vulnerable to an increased risk for mental health disorders and suicide attempts. In this study, 17 adults, each a child survivor of their parent’s suicide, shared their perceptions of support following the suicide. Helpful experiences included opening communication about suicide and offering individualized support. Unhelpful experiences included judgment and blame, silence regarding suicide, and a heightened awareness of the surviving parent’s challenges. Individuals most helpful in meeting the child’s needs included those with pre-existing relationships. In particular, our findings emphasizes the critical need for honest, open, and age-appropriate communication about the parent’s suicide.

Children often have difficulty talking openly about a parent’s suicide. Bibliotherapy can help, but no bibliotherapy studies address parental suicide. We gave a focus group (5 paraprofessionals) 15 children’s books addressing grief, parental suicide, and emotional expression, asking them which books were most helpful. They emphasized individualizing treatment to fit the child, recommending the books that honestly portrayed suicide, showed a way forward, provided hope, and assured children that they are not alone. The most highly recommend books were <i>Bart Speaks Out: Breaking the Silence on </i><i>Suicide</i> and <i>After a Suicide Death: A Workbook for Grieving Kids</i>.

Like many Indigenous nations, the Navajo Nation has worked to develop its human and economic potential. It has provided scholarships and other supports to enable its members to pursue post-secondary education. However, relatively few of these college-educated members return to the reservation to contribute directly to its development. This phenomenon has been termed a brain drain. This study explored the experiences of 28 college-educated Navajos who, while raised on the reservation, were living off the reservation after completing their post-secondary education. Participants indicated a number of factors that went into their decision to live off the reservation. These included:

Ké’: Relationships/Connections to Family, Culture, Homeland, People;
Iiná: Lifestyle/Lifeway, Desirable Setting, Learned Work Ethic, Social Atmosphere, Togetherness (Diné) vs. Individualism (Mainstream);
Bee ach’į’ na’hwii’ná: Resources and Roadblocks to Making a Life, Infrastructure, Services, The “System”;
Bee ajit’9: Opportunity, Prosperity and Personal Improvement, Education, Extracurricular, Job Availability, Work Experience.

As part of Utah’s state-wide Youth Suicide Prevention Manual, parent handouts offer an invitation to increase parent involvement and home/school collaboration. Information from a variety of resources was synthesized into handouts that schools can provide to parents (see handouts provided in the Appendix). These handouts include information regarding adolescent suicide, warning signs, steps parents can take if suicidal ideation or planning is suspected, and community resources available for parents and adolescents. Developed as part of home/school collaborative suicide prevention efforts, these handouts will be made available in Utah’s Youth Suicide Prevention Manual. School districts are encouraged to consider their schools’ needs and to modify these handouts as needed to fit their community’s and families’ needs.

Special education faculty member (n-12) from a large Western university participated in a four-year professional development program centered on increasing their cultural responsiveness. During the fourth year the primary investigator interviewed faculty members regarding their perceptions and the impact of the program. Each interview was audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using the inductive analysis design for qualitative research (Hatch, 2002). Faculty expressed likes and dislikes of the program and provided suggestions for future professional development. Other results that emerged included that time was a barrier, that leaving campus facilitated learning, and that collaboration enhanced learning. Faculty reported that the professional development made them self-reflect, change practice and attitudes, adjust their perceptions of diverse students, and alter professional interactions. Faculty also expressed personal conflicts as a result of these activities.

American Indian college students often face multiple challenges that might be helped by counseling. However, these students are the least likely to take advantage of counseling services. In order to understand how to improve counseling services for this group, qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 practicing college counselors who have considerable experience working with American Indian students. The themes generated from the analysis include recommendations for both institutions and individual counselors.

We articulate the need for a Counseling Psychology Model Training Values Statement Addressing Diversity (henceforth called ?Values Statement?). We discuss the historic unwillingness of the field to address values in a sophisticated or complex way, and highlight the increasingly common training scenario in which trainees state that certain professional requirements are in conflict with their personal values. We explain that the Values Statement grew out of trainers? expressed need for guidance in dealing with these complex and often emotionally-charged value clashes in training. We explain how the Values Statement can assist training programs to (a) clearly articulate the professions? diversity-related values, (b) connect individual and professional values to societal value structures that either reinforce or challenge systems of oppression; and (c) help students to develop the philosophical sophistication to reconcile their personal values and the professions? values. Overall, we explicate that the Values Statement is needed to assists trainees to comprehend and perform required diversity-related professional behaviors.