BUILDING BRIDGES OVER TROUBLED WATERS - SCHOOL-BASED POSTVENTION WITHADOLESCENT SURVIVORS OF PEER SUICIDE

Completed suicide is the most extreme example of the myriad of self-de structive behaviors among adolescents. The friends and acquaintances o f the decreased adolescent, the ''survivors,'' who are left behind in the wake of an adolescent's suicide often are in crisis. Among other t hings, they experience a violation of their fundamental assumptions ab out the world and psychological disequilibrium. Timely postvention ass istance, afforded within the school setting, but as part of a school-c ommunity partnership, can provide surviving peers with the caring, sup port, and guidance they need not only to sustain them through the cris is of a peer's suicide, but also to assist them in proceeding with the ir lives in a spirit of hope, weaving the tragedy into the tapestry of their life experience.