Meeting to help families deal with grief of suicide

A conference designed to help the families and friends express and deal with the grief, stigma, pain and guilt they experience following the suicide of a loved one is also being billed as a "kick-off to open a floodgate of information."

Half teleconference, half support group meeting, the Survivors for Suicide Prevention Conference, sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, is set for 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium of the Addeliar D. Guy III VA Ambulatory Care Center, 1700 Vegas Drive, at Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Other cities around the country will participate in similar foundation-sponsored conferences. The teleconference portion of the meeting, lasting until 11 a.m., will be heard by conference-goers in all cities. Las Vegas attendees will follow up with a presentation on "holiday bereavement" and an hourlong support group session.

Sen. Harry Reid, whose father, Harry, shot himself in 1972, is slated to be the conference keynote speaker. If Congress has not adjourned for the year, he has made arrangements to tape his keynote address, an aide said.

Reid, a member of the Senate Aging Committee, has been an advocate of a Senate resolution declaring Nov. 20 as Survivors for Suicide Prevention Day.

A panel of survivors from across the country will follow Reid with information on dealing with the suicide of a loved one and on how survivors can help in the effort to prevent suicide.

The foundation was formed in 1986 as a way to bring business and community leaders together with experts on suicide to make it possible to fund suicide prevention research. The foundation focuses especially on suicide in the very young and in those over 50.

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