About the training

In this voice-activated, immersive, virtual-reality experience, participants will navigate the complex emotional landscape that emerges after losing a team member to suicide, while practicing Safe Messaging techniques that promote healing rather than harm. Learners will practice having meaningful conversations with surviving teammates who may be struggling with guilt, anger, confusion, and their own mental health concerns. They’ll have the opportunity to explore the balance between honoring the deceased while protecting the wellbeing of those left behind through evidence-based communication strategies.

Scenario:

Set in an operational military environment, this scenario places the learner in the role of a leader tasked with checking in on team mates who were close to a service member who recently died by suicide.

Targeted Learners:

Service Members

Learning Objectives

• Apply Safe Messaging principles during postvention conversations
• Acknowledge grief and loss in appropriate, supportive ways
• Avoid oversimplifying suicide or providing potentially harmful explanations
• Prevent glamorization or romanticization of suicide methods or circumstances
• Emphasize hope, resilience, and availability of support resources
• Navigate complex emotions including guilt, anger, and survivor concerns
• Connect struggling individuals with appropriate resources
• Provide warm hand-offs to professional support when needed
• Counter harmful myths and misconceptions about suicide

Skills

• Safe Messaging
• Grief acknowledgment
• Suicide myth correction
• Crisis assessment and intervention
• Resource referral
• Warm hand-offs
• Resilience building
• Postvention communication