Mindfulness‐based weekend retreats for people bereaved by suicide (Panta Rhei): A pilot feasibility study

Abstract

Mindfulness-based weekend retreats seem to be effective in alleviating the psychological distress of suicide survivors in the short term. The benefit may depend on standard mindfulness practices and on more tailored interventions aimed at promoting acceptance of loss, forgiveness and rage management, and thus reducing rumination. Since there is no established treatment for this population, this type of intervention, which seems feasible and well accepted by participants, paves the way for future research in this area.

Suicide Postvention Service Models and Guidelines 2014–2019: A Systematic Review

“…Eight papers published since 2014 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review (Table 1). Two studies were conducted in Australia (Visser et al, 2014; Peters et al, 2015), two in the USA (Supiano et al, 2017; Zisook et al, 2018), two in Belgium (Wittouck et al, 2014) (including one also conducted in the Netherlands, Kramer et al, 2015), and one in Korea (Cha et al, 2018) and Italy (Scocco et al, 2019), each. There were two RCTs (Wittouck et al, 2014; Zisook et al, 2018), two pre- and post-designs without control group (Kramer et al, 2015; Scocco et al, 2019), two prospective designs without control groups (Supiano et al, 2017; Cha et al, 2018), and two retrospective descriptive, cross-sectional studies (Visser et al, 2014; Peters et al, 2015).…”

“…Seven studies (Visser et al, 2014; Wittouck et al, 2014; Kramer et al, 2015; Peters et al, 2015; Supiano et al, 2017; Zisook et al, 2018; Scocco et al, 2019) focused on adult populations, and one on young people (high school students) (Cha et al, 2018). While some studies (e.g., Supiano et al, 2017; Zisook et al, 2018) included older adults, no study specifically focused on them.…”

“…The study populations consisted mainly of first-degree family members (Visser et al, 2014; Wittouck et al, 2014; Kramer et al, 2015; Peters et al, 2015; Zisook et al, 2018; Scocco et al, 2019), though most studies also included other relatives and/or non-relatives (Visser et al, 2014; Wittouck et al, 2014; Kramer et al, 2015; Cha et al, 2018; Zisook et al, 2018; Scocco et al, 2019). Time since loss in study participants varied considerably between studies, ranging from 1 week (Cha et al, 2018) to between 3 months and 30 years (Scocco et al, 2019). Reported mean time since loss ranged from M = 9.8 months ( SD 5.7) (Wittouck et al, 2014) to M = 5.96 years ( SD 3.7) (Peters et al, 2015).…”

“…The interventions were conducted in a variety of settings: clinical (Wittouck et al, 2014; Supiano et al, 2017; Zisook et al, 2018), community-based (Visser et al, 2014; Peters et al, 2015), residential (Scocco et al, 2019), school (Cha et al, 2018), and online (Kramer et al, 2015). Three studies involved a group intervention (Wittouck et al, 2014; Peters et al, 2015; Supiano et al, 2017), three studies an individual intervention (Visser et al, 2014; Kramer et al, 2015; Zisook et al, 2018), and two studies a combination of group and individual interventions (Cha et al, 2018; Scocco et al, 2019). Two interventions were described as manualized (Supiano et al, 2017; Zisook et al, 2018).…”

Rorschach Assessment in Suicide Survivors: Focus on Suicidal Ideation

“…Acting with awareness, non-judging and non-reacting seem to be dimension with a protective effect on psychological distress in SSs; for this reason, Mindfulness-based weekend retreats could be a further effective intervention in alleviating the suffering of this particular population of users (73).…”