ABSTRACT
Didi Hirsch’s Suicide Prevention Center’s (SPC) Survivors After Suicide Program (SAS; formerly known as the Los Angeles Survivors After Suicide Program) is a multitasked program specifi cally designed to provide emotional support and counseling to persons who have lost a loved one to suicide (as opposed to the “survivor” of a nonfatal suicide attempt). The program was initiated in 1981 and grew out of the experiences of the SPC staff in conducting psychological autopsies on suicide and equivocal deaths for the coroner of Los Angeles County. Interviews with the families and other witnesses in investigations of the deaths disclosed a frequently severe emotional impact of the death on the survivors. The SAS program was developed to help survivors resolve their reported feelings of guilt, confusion, and grief.
