PLATTSBURGH — International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day offers a safe space for those impacted by suicide today from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Cardinal Lounge, Angell College Center, SUNY Plattsburgh.
Participants will view an American Foundation for Suicide Prevention video followed by discussion and a remembrance of the individuals in their lives lost to suicide.
“This event is intended for friends and family of people who have died by suicide. It could be a recent loss, like within the last month, or it could be decades old,” Bonnie Black, board member of the NYS Capital Region Chapter, said.
“There is no closure for a death by suicide. Typically, it’s extremely unexpected and traumatic to those who cherished the person. This day is held in approximately 20 different countries, and the U.S. is just one of them.”
Today marks AFSP’s largest event around the holidays.
“Not because there are more suicides around the holidays, but because the survivors have a large gap in their lives,” she said. “Sometimes literally an empty chair at that first Thanksgiving or that first Hanukkah or that first holiday celebration, Christmas, whatever. and that empty chair is a physical reminder of a life lost to suicide.”
In the United States, there were more than 50,000 deaths by suicide in 2023, the highest number of confirmed suicide deaths, according to the CDC.
“This day is a day for people who have lost someone to be in a room with, many who have lost someone to suicide,” Black said. “We watch a video prepared by AFSP, and then we discuss the people in the video — maybe the traditions they now have, maybe it’s how they learned to manage their lives without the person who has died.
“Each year’s set of videos is very different. It allows us to connect with and empathize with the people in the video, and then we begin to process — for those who are comfortable doing so — how they have coped with this death. We make sure there are lots of resources and information, especially for the survivors. We have information on resilience and self-care, especially around holidays, so that the people who are the survivors begin to manage their grief better.”