Publications on Peer Support for the Military Bereaved
TAPS relies on empirical evidence and publications to provide the highest quality of comfort, care, and resources to all those grieving the death of a military loved one.
TAPS was founded on the principles of best practices in peer-based emotional support for bereaved survivors. Today, TAPS provides care to grieving military survivors across generations using these empirical practices.
TAPS peer support provides all those grieving the death of a military loved one with a safe individual or group setting to connect with others who share a similar experience. Connecting with others and realizing they are not alone in their experience, survivors are able to overcome the challenges they are facing, validate and normalize their emotional grief responses, and experience a sense of hopefulness.
This page provides some of the foundational articles on the principles of TAPS peer support, in addition to research publications on TAPS programs and services. Renowned researcher and TAPS advisory board member Dr. Paul Bartone has documented the impact of this work in a landmark new systematic review of evidence and best practices in peer-based support, featured below *.
- Understanding Evidence and Provision of Services Around Social Isolation and Loneliness of Military Widow/ers: A Scoping Review. PloS one, 18(11), e0293182, (November 2023). Johnson, A., Moreland, M., Kiernan, M. D., Collins, T., and Wilson-Menzfeld, G.
- Peer Support for the Bereaved. In J. Avery. Peer Support in Medicine: A Quick Guide. Springer (2021). Paul T. Bartone and Chantel M. Dooley
- Standardization and Adaptability for Dissemination of Telephone Peer Support for High-risk Groups: General Evaluation and Lessons Learned. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 10(3), 506-515. Megan Evans, Patrick Y. Tang, Nivedita Bhushan, Edwin B. Fisher, Dawn Dreyer Valovcin, and Cherie Castellano. (2020).
- Exploration into Best Practices in Peer Support for Bereaved Survivors. Death Studies, 42(9), 555-568 (March 2018). Paul T. Bartone, Jocelyn V. Bartone, Zaneta Gileno and John M. Violanti.
- Understanding the Relationship Between Peer Support and Grief/Growth in Chinese Shidu Parents: The Roles of Internalized Stigma and Stigma Resistance . OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 0(0), 1-19 (2023). Ningning Zhou, Fei Ren, Guangyuan Shi, and Jianping Wang.
- Evidence- and practice-informed approach to implementing peer grief support after suicide systematically in the USA. National Library of Medicine. Franklin James Cook, Linda Langford, Kim Ruocco. (2017)
- Evidence- and practice-informed approach to implementing peer grief support after suicide systematically in the USA. Death Studies Volume 41, 2017 - Issue 10. Franklin James Cook, Linda Langford, Kim Ruocco. (2017)
- * Peer Support for Bereaved Survivors: Systematic Review of Evidence and Identification of Best Practices. Tragedy Assistance Programs for Survivors (TAPS), (2017). Paul T. Bartone. See also: TAPS press release.
- Reciprocal Peer Support (RPS): A Decade of not so Random Acts of Kindness. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 14(2), 105-110. Cherie Castellano. (2012)
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- Disenfranchised Grief in Gold Star Military Families. Combat Stress Magazine, 11(2), 16 - 21 (2022). Bartone, P.T., Doka, K.
- Risk Factors for Complicated Grief in the Military Community. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, First Published 20 May 2021. Grace E. Seamon-Lahiff, Chantel M. Dooley, Paul T. Bartone, Bonnie Carroll
- Turning War Grief into Positive Peace. Geneva Peace Week, Geneva, Switzerland. (November 2019). Grace E. Seamon-Lahiff, Chantel M. Dooley.
- A Model for Supporting Grief Recovery Following Traumatic Loss: The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). Military Medicine, 184(7-8), 166–170 (April 2019). Grace E. Seamon-Lahiff, Chantel M. Dooley, Laura E. Fry, Paul T. Bartone, Bonnie Carroll.
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- Growth and Hope after loss: How TAPS facilitates posttraumatic growth in those grieving military deaths, Frontiers in Psychology, (December 2022). Melinda Moore, Jerry K. Palmer, Julie Cerel, and Kim Ruocco.
- TAPS Suicide Postvention ModelTM: A Comprehensive Framework of Healing and Growth. Death Studies, (January 2021). Kim A. Ruocco, Carla Stumpf Patton, Kim Burditt, Bonnie Carroll and Matt Mabe.
- Intensive outpatient treatment of PTSD and complicated grief in suicide-bereaved military widows. Death Studies (March 2020). Bonnie Ohye, Cynthia Moore, Meredith Charney, Lauren M. Laifer, Allyson M. Blackburn, Eric Bui & Naomi M. Simon.
- Perspectives of Suicide Bereaved Individuals on Military Suicide Decedents' Life Stressors and Male Gender Role Stress. Archives of Suicide Research, 21(1), 155-168. Sterling IV, A. G., Bakalar, J. L., Perera, K. U., DeYoung, K. A., Harrington-LaMorie, J., Haigney, D., & Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M. (2016).
- The Challenge and the Promise: Strengthening the Force, Preventing Suicide and Saving Lives: Final Report of the Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces. (August 2010).
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For more information on our work, contact us at research@taps.org