Postvention at SHU

Defining Postvention

In the 2023-2024 academic year, the University’s executive director of Wellness Services developed a postvention policy through the ongoing efforts of the JED Campus initiative. This policy was developed from the guidance of the Higher Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA) Project. HEMHA defines postvention efforts as those that address “the need for predetermined strategies to effectively and sensitively respond to campus deaths after they occur… with the intention to facilitate the grieving or adjustment process, stabilize the environment, reduce the risk of negative behaviors and limit the risk of further suicides through contagion.”

Goals of Postvention

According to HEMHA, the seven goals surrounding postvention efforts are:

  • Help those impacted by suicide deal with the current trauma and grief and reduce the intensity of an individual’s or group’s emotional, mental, physical and behavioral reactions to a crisis
  • Stabilize the campus community, restore some semblance of order and routine and help community members return to their precrisis level of functioning
  • Prevent (or at least limit the risk of) further suicides and imitative suicidal behavior through contagion, as other students in the community who are struggling with psychological pain may be influenced to act in a similar way
  • Work with students, faculty and staff to solve problems as this may help to enhance independent functioning
  • Facilitate understanding and help the campus community:
    • process what has happened
    • express difficult emotions
    • understand the impact of the event
  • Avoid institutionalizing grief (i.e., when the memory of a campus suicide becomes ingrained in the institution to the point that it becomes difficult to remember the community as safe or without grief)
  • Allow for learning from current postvention efforts to improve future prevention, postvention and response efforts

Postvention Committee

  • Executive Director of Student Wellness Services (Postvention Chair & Point Person)
  • Dean of Students (Postvention Chair & Family Liaison)
  • Assistant Dean of Students
  • Director of Student Conduct & Community Standards
  • Executive Director of Public Safety/Supervisor of Investigations & Safety Programs
  • Director of Student Life Operations
  • Assistant Director for Student Accessibility
  • Executive Director for Student Advising & Success
  • Executive Director of Athletics & Associate Athletic Director: Student Athlete Support Services
  • Associate Director of Residential Life
  • Vice President for Marketing & Communications
  • Executive Director of Mission Integration