An unfortunate part of life is the tragedy of losing someone, and when that happens through a suicide, it becomes even more heartbreaking for many. Could it have been prevented? What could have been done differently to de-escalate the situation? How does one move on from a loss through such actions? While these are questions to ask for a long time, the more immediate situation that requires careful attention is the cleanup process after a suicide—but that’s what a suicide cleanup service is there for.

Suicides are messy situations, especially when firearms become involved, or when there is a large amount of blood. Bodily fluids are always difficult to clean up completely, and if the suicide hasn’t been detected for several days, it becomes much more difficult for those that need to clean up the scene. Families don’t have to clean up the suicide area themselves, though; it is highly recommended that they call in professional suicide cleanup services to clean up after a suicide, for both physical safety and psychological safety.

Professional Suicide Cleanup

Professional suicide cleanup services have several components in their process, starting with assessing the scene. After a suicide, since there are any number of ways someone could have committed suicide, the scene needs to be walked through and assessed to determine everything that needs to be removed to be discarded, removed to be cleaned and replaced, and where deep cleaning of surfaces must occur. If a suicide was in a home and included a large amount of blood, floorboards or walls may need to be torn out in order to get to the interior structure to fully clean and disinfect the area and make it liveable again. Blood, if it’s been sitting for several days, can cause lingering smell, so a professional team is highly recommended because they know where to look, and how to effectively remove all signs of blood so that smells do not appear and linger forever.

Dangers of Biological Fluids

Any fluid that comes from a body must be considered a biohazard when it comes to cleaning up a suicide. You can never be too sure about what diseases or ailments a suicide victim had, and coming into contact with their blood or other bodily fluids without proper protections and training can result in the people cleaning getting infected and sick. Calling in a professional suicide cleanup service means you get a fully trained, insured, and protected team cleaning up the scene. With proper training, they know how to properly handle and dispose of biohazardous waste, and with proper equipment, they will have the PPE in order to keep themselves and others around them safe during the cleanup process.

Easing the Psychological Effects of Suicide Cleanup

The family and friends of a suicide victim are already going through immense emotional and psychological turmoil after a suicide. Being forced to constantly relive the event by having to clean it up themselves could cause even more, irreversible damage to their psyche. Suicide cleanup services have the added benefit for families of having someone else deal with the cleanup. Those in charge of the cleanup will keep families up to date on progress, but they will also be careful about what they say and will keep the interaction professional yet comforting. They give a reprieve from having to view the scene again until it’s been fully cleaned up. Professional suicide cleanup services are also very careful about privacy, and they will not talk to the media about cleanups to ensure extra details are not leaked that the family does not want spread.

Financial Considerations

With biological fluids involved in the cleanup process of most suicides, the process can get expensive if you do not know what you are doing. Like trauma cleanup from crime scenes, suicides can include a lot of blood, making them often more expensive than the cleanup of smoke damage after a fire. If you are not careful with cleanup, you could miss something, resulting in smells later on, health issues, or just making a place unliveable, requiring you to do a second teardown after a suicide to complete the cleaning. Bringing in suicide cleanup services means that you will get the scene cleaned up professionally the first time, and they are much less likely to miss a spot that will cause extra damage and costs later on.

If you are having to deal with a suicide in your life and need the scene cleaned up, then you should always consider hiring suicide cleanup services to ensure a full deep clean that is done in a safe manner.