TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

258 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 effect of perceived level of support based on agency type and found no significant difference in SPOS scores based on agency type ( F [7, 220] = 1.084, p = .4). Contrary to expectations, SPOS did not seem to affect the counselor survivors’ experience of client suicide. Agency Responses Our second research question inquired about agency policies governing responses to the counselor survivor at the time of a client suicide. Possible agency policies that respondents could choose from included no policy; debriefing of the event; required paperwork; extra supervision; mandated personal counseling; mandated time off; and a final category, “other,” which allowed respondents to fill in an answer that was not listed in the choices. Respondents were provided with the opportunity to choose as many responses as applied; thus, the responses cumulatively totaled over 100%. The most frequently indicated response for agency-initiated policies was no policy ( n = 118, 52%). This was followed by mandated debriefing of the event ( n = 63, 28%), required paperwork ( n = 57, 25%), extra supervision ( n = 16, 7%), mandated counseling ( n = 8, 4%), and mandated time off ( n = 4, 2%). Fourteen respondents (6%) chose “other” to indicate that the agency enforced a policy not listed in the choices. Write-in responses that differed from the listed choices included group debriefing ( n = 6), psychological autopsy ( n = 2), notification of administrators ( n = 2), crisis team intervention ( n = 1), and liability review ( n = 1). We conducted a chi-square test of independence to determine if agency type differed according to the presence of an agency policy for counselor support at the time of suicide. Because of insufficient group size of some of the agency types, only participant responses from agency types that had over five participants (outpatient [ n = 59], K–12 schools [ n = 54], private practice [ n = 34], acute psychiatric [ n = 26], and residential [ n = 16]) were included in the analysis. A significant difference was detected with this test ( χ 2 = 14.3, p < .01), which indicated that some agency types may be more likely to have a policy in place than others. We then followed up with multiple chi-square goodness-of-fit tests, which revealed that participants who worked in acute psychiatric settings ( n = 26, χ 2 = 5.6, p < .05) were significantly more likely to have a policy in place than other agency types, and participants who worked in private practice settings ( n = 34, χ 2 = 5.77, p < . 05) were significantly more likely to have no policy in place than participants who worked in other settings. Helpfulness of Agency Responses Regarding our third research question, participants ( N = 228) were asked to rate the level of helpfulness of responses to client suicide. Of the participants who reported receiving counseling after client suicide ( n = 99, 43%), 54 (55%) participants reported that this agency response was either very helpful or extremely helpful. Additionally, 28 (28%) participants reported counseling as moderately helpful, 13 (13%) reported counseling as a little helpful, and four (4%) participants reported counseling as not helpful at all. Over one-third ( n = 77, 34%) of participants reported that they took time off work after a client suicide. Most of the participants who reported taking time off reported it was very helpful or extremely helpful ( n = 41, 53%). This was followed by those who found time off as moderately helpful ( n = 15, 20%), a little helpful ( n = 12, 16%), and not helpful at all ( n = 9, 12%). Participant responses to our questions inquiring about agency policies and mandated responses differed from responses to perceived helpfulness of agency responses. For example, only eight individuals indicated that their agency mandated personal counseling, whereas 99 individuals indicated that they engaged in personal counseling after the event and rated the perceived helpfulness of the counseling. Similarly, only four participants indicated their agency required they