Mattering: Children's Experiences of Care and Support After Suicide

The care and support a child receives following a bereavement can significantly impact a child’s ability to adjust. Children bereaved by suicide are at increased risk of negative outcomes, yet little is known about their experiences and needs for care and support or what it means for them to be cared for and supported. Previous studies have mainly focused on the care and support experiences of adolescent and adult suicide loss survivors. A paucity of qualitative research has examined child suicide loss survivors’ experiences of care and support. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of 10 Aotearoa/New Zealand child survivors (aged 6-13 years) who lost a loved one to suicide. In-depth phenomenological interviews were used to gain insights into the care and support experiences of the children. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using van Manen’s interpretative/descriptive approach to phenomenology. The children described experiences of care (and support) they received from others, self-care, and care they provided to others. Five key themes within the phenomenon of care were identified: connective care, attentive care, responsive care, self-care, and care for others. Mattering was the overarching essence of their experience and what it meant for the children to be cared for and supported after the suicide of someone close. It was through experiencing mattering that the children were able to experience care. The children felt cared for and supported only when caring and supportive behaviours reinforced their sense of mattering. What reinforced a child’s sense of mattering was unique to each child. The children wanted care that was responsive to their unique and individual needs and that promoted their agency and emotional safety. Agency was about being empowered to have a voice and choice so that care could be provided based on their actual, rather than assumed, needs. To feel emotionally safe, the children needed care that was empathetic and based on a genuine connection and lived experience (offered by people who ‘get it’). This study has created new knowledge about what care and support means to a child survivor, what it is like to be cared for and supported, and what child survivors experience as being helpful and unhelpful. The implications of the findings are that those caring for and supporting child survivors need to think differently about the way that child survivors are viewed and cared for. The findings highlight the need for suicide postvention for children to be based on a mattering-reinforcing approach to care (trauma-informed and child-centred), and for child survivors to be seen as active participants in their care. Recommendations are made for postvention practice and future research.