Parents and family members are often treated as experimental or observational units from whom information can be gathered and inferences made about suicide survivors (family of a suicide case). Collecting data in this way limits the knowledge about suicide survivors’ needs and how they can contribute to the suicide debate for the development of a suicide policy. It is not helpful to claim mental illness as the cause of suicide when the suicide rate decreases, and then claim that suicide is a very complex health outcome caused by many factors when the suicide rate increases. In this discussion paper, we argue that a suicide prevention model that places mental illness at the centre of the suicide debate only leads to a policy of ‘more of the same’, and will have little effect on suicide prevention and care support post-suicide (for suicide survivors). Furthermore, we argue that the contribution that suicide survivors can make to
understanding suicide should not be ignored.