| Summary: | Despite preventive efforts, youth suicide is identified as a public and mental health problem
of epidemic proportion in Western society. The short- and long-term health and human
consequences associated with youth suicide are enormous, affecting each family survivor, the
family, and ultimately, the community and society. Youth suicide has its greatest impact on the
family, yet health care responses to these grieving families remains inadequate at best. This
grounded theory study, based on a health promotion philosophy that embraces the strengths and
resilient nature of grieving individuals, examined how individuals within the context of the family
heal in the aftermath of youth suicide. Eleven families from rural and small urban centres were
interviewed for the study during an 18 month period.
Individual healing following youth suicide is conceptualized as Journeying Toward
Wholeness. This journey is characterized by the inter-relationships among three enfolding, fluid,
and iterative themes, which in themselves, each represent one portion of the overall journey:
Cocooning (Journey of Descent); Centering (Journey of Growth); and Connecting (Journey of
Transcendence). Within each theme, five self-organizing and inter-relating patterns (i.e., relating,
thinking, functioning, energizing, and finding meaning/exploring spirituality) operate in mutual
rhythmical interchange with the other patterns unbound by time. Each pattern describes one facet
of the individual's experience in response to youth suicide. Journeying toward wholeness (i.e.,
healing) varies in expression and intensity over time in response to a variety of contextual factors
including personal history, factors related to the suicide, social considerations, and the health care
environment. Importantly, healing emanates, as an act of volition, from the survivor's
consciousness (i.e., the healing epicentre) as a result of decision making.
The degree to which healing occurs depends on a number of intervening variables reflecting
the survivor's capacity to say yes to life; step out and speak up; achieve a sense of peace,
harmony, and balance; and expand personal consciousness. As a major outcome of the healing
process, each survivor creates a love knot, symbolic of the healing strategies he or she uses to
facilitate healing within both private and public spheres. The love knot represents the creative
expression of love as a healthy and continuing bond between the survivor and deceased youth. The
love knot is based on the meaning the survivor attributes to his or her experience with youth
suicide and the relationship between the survivor and deceased youth prior to death. Ultimately,
individual healing expands outward influencing family, societal, and global spheres.
The theory presented in this dissertation will be of particular interest to clinical nurse
specialists and mental health care professionals from a variety of disciplines who work closely with
families in the community. With its focus on health promotion, this theory captures some of the
intricacies and complexities of the healing process and is intended to serve as a possible reference
to guide evidence-based health care practice. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Nursing, School of === Graduate
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