The Effectiveness and Safety of Suicide Postvention Programs

In 2006, the provincial government and community partners released a strategy designed to help reduce suicide and attempted suicide in Nova Scotia. To support the carrying out of this framework, a series of research reports is being prepared to give suicide prevention partners the best available research and recommendations on suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. These papers are being prepared in partnership by the Nova Scotia Department of Health Promotion and Protection, the Department of Health, the Canadian Mental Health Association (Nova Scotia Division), and the Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health.

The following is a summary of a report prepared on the effectiveness and safety of suicide postvention programs.The systematic review of the research literature on suicide postvention summary of the most substantive and high-quality evidence needed to develop policy, planning, and practice. Two evidence quality frameworks, the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM) and the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) What Works Repository Framework, were used to evaluate the evidence.