Suicide Cleanup community polls
See how other people handled the same decisions, then add your own answer.
Nobody plans for this. When it happens, most families find that the practical questions come faster than the answers. The people around them often have no direct experience to share. That is what these polls are for. They show how others in the same spot made choices. Did they stay in the house? Who did they tell? How did they pick a provider, and what do they wish they had asked? Reading a range of answers will not tell you what is right for your family. But it can help you feel less alone as you choose. It also helps the network see what readers truly struggle with. That way the guides and tools stay focused on real needs, not on what an industry assumes people want.
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Vote on the questions that matter here
Every count is a real visitor vote; nothing is seeded or padded. One vote per poll per device, and you can change your answer.
If you were coordinating cleanup after a suicide loss, who would you want to make the first call to a provider?
How important is it to you that a cleanup crew arrives in unmarked vehicles and plain clothing?
Would you stay in the home while remediation was being done in another room?
When choosing between two providers for a suicide scene, which factor would weigh most?
Would you open an insurance claim for suicide cleanup, or pay privately?
How would you want a crew to handle personal items found in the affected room?
Why opinions matter in suicide cleanup
The choices after a suicide loss are rarely neat. Some are practical. Can the room be closed off until a crew arrives? Does a landlord or executor need to sign before work begins? Others are personal. You may wonder whether to keep a piece of furniture or let children back in before repairs are done. You may wonder how much to tell neighbors. A few choices are about money, such as whether to open an insurance claim or pay on your own for the sake of privacy. Each poll on this page focuses on one of those choices. The options are written to be balanced. That way you can see honest splits of opinion, not a push toward any one answer.
Poll results are opinions, not evidence, so treat them that way. A top answer shows what many people were comfortable with. It does not show what is safe, legal, or right for a certain property. Use results as a starting point for talking with a checked provider, an estate lawyer, or a counselor. Do not treat a popular answer as permission to skip a step. This is most true for anything about soiled materials or who has authority over the property. If you are reading this while in deep distress, please pause and contact the 988 Lifeline first. The polls will still be here. The choices can wait a little longer than it feels like they can.
How to read poll results
Polls on this site reflect whoever chose to answer. That means they lean toward people who found the page and felt strongly enough to click. They also had to be in a state of mind to do so. That is not a random sample of everyone who has faced a loss by suicide. Treat the results as a snapshot of a self-selected group. Look at the spread between options, not just the top choice. A close split often says more about how hard a choice is than a one-sided result does. If an option gets few votes, it may just mean few people faced that situation.
Other statistics on this site come from public agencies, peer-reviewed studies, or industry groups. Each one is cited so you can check where it came from. Those figures describe measured facts, such as how contact with bloodborne germs is regulated or what the cleanup often involves. A poll result describes a preference or a memory. Those can shift with time and mood. When the two seem to disagree, trust the sourced figure for safety and planning. The poll is still useful. It shows how people feel about the same facts, and feelings are a real part of choices made while grieving.
How voting works
One vote per poll per device; you can change your answer. Votes are stored as anonymous counts with a salted, hashed identifier and never linked to a name, email or form submission.
Opinion versus observation
Findings from published studies of people and properties in situations like this one. They describe what researchers observed in a specific group; they are not predictions for your case.
Relatives continued interpreting the deceased person's intentions after the encounter.
Different members of the same family could make different viewing decisions.
Sourced numbers next to the opinions
Polls show what visitors think. These figures come from published research and agency data, so you can compare perception with evidence.
- 37%
An estimated 37% of fire and EMS professionals have contemplated suicide, nearly 10 times the rate of American adults, and 6.6% have attempted suicide versus 0.5% of civilians.
Read with care: Based on a cited convenience-sample survey; not a national probability estimate.
Source: SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center (2018)United States, fire and EMS professionals (Abbot et al., 2015, cited by SAMHSA)
- 71.3%
In 2021, 71.3% of NVDRS-recorded suicides occurred in a house or apartment and 54.3% involved a firearm.
Read with care: Earlier year; use as trend confirmation with the 2022 figure.
Source: CDC (2021)United States, 48 states, DC and Puerto Rico, 2021
- 11,453
Suffocation (including hanging) accounted for 11,453 U.S. suicide deaths and poisoning for 5,651 in 2024.
Read with care: Poisoning includes drug overdoses classified as intentional.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics (2024)United States, 2024, death certificates
- 24.3%
24.3% reported high-level need for information and advice.
Read with care: Pandemic-specific and self-selected; overlapping follow-up studies must not duplicate baseline findings.
Source: Harrop et al. (2021)711 UK adults bereaved March–December 2020; nonprobability recruitment.
These figures are public research and agency data, not this network's own job records. Keep each number with its population, year and limits; none of them predicts cost, timing or outcome at a specific property.
Questions about suicide cleanup polls
Are my answers to these polls anonymous?
The polls on this site are made so you can answer without giving a name, email, or any detail that identifies you. Results are shown only as combined counts. If you are worried about privacy for any reason, you can read the results without voting at all. The goal is to show families how others have handled similar choices. It is not to collect information about you or your home.
Why do some poll options seem to contradict the safety guidance on the site?
Polls capture what people really did or would do. That includes choices a cleanup professional would advise against. Leaving those options out would make the results misleading. When a popular answer conflicts with sourced safety advice, treat the advice as the one to trust. The poll shows you the pull of the moment, which is real. But it is not a reason to enter a soiled room or to skip keeping records.
Can I use poll results to argue with a provider or an insurer?
A poll is not a standard, so it carries no weight with a carrier or a contractor. What can help is the language you pick up from reading the questions: what others asked for, what they were surprised by, and what they later regretted. Bring those points to your own conversations. For anything that affects coverage or scope, rely on your policy, the written estimate, and the guidance of a verified provider.
I answered a poll and now feel worse. Is that normal?
It is common. Seeing your situation reduced to a multiple-choice question can feel jarring, and reading how others struggled may stir your own grief. That reaction does not mean you did anything wrong. Step away from the screen, reach out to someone you trust, and if the feeling is heavy or frightening, contact the 988 Lifeline by call, text, or chat. Support for people grieving a suicide loss exists and is meant for exactly this.
Who writes the poll questions, and can I suggest one?
The network's editors write the questions. They base them on the choices families often describe in guides, tool use, and messages from readers. Each question is reviewed so the wording follows safe-messaging practice and avoids options that push you one way. If a choice you faced is missing, use the site's contact page to suggest it. Questions that ask for method details or that could identify a certain person will not be added.
Do the polls change over time, and are older results archived?
Results keep adding up as new readers vote, so what you see today may shift by next month. Now and then a question is retired when it stops being useful or when the wording needs to be clearer. When that happens, the old question is removed rather than rewritten in place. That way a result never quietly changes meaning under a new heading. Treat any figure you write down as a moment in time.
Should a grieving family even be reading polls right now?
Only if it helps. Some people find it steadying to see that others hesitated over the same choices; others find it exhausting. There is no requirement to participate, and nothing here is time-sensitive. If you have an urgent decision about the property, the First 24 Hours Planner and a direct call to a verified provider will serve you better. The polls can wait for a quieter day, or be skipped entirely.
More on suicide cleanup
Suicide Cleanup services
Learn what cleanup after a suicide loss involves. See how scene release, approval, disinfecting, belongings, and records all work to protect your family.
Costs explained
What drives the price, published cost ranges, and how to read a written quote line by line.
Insurance and payment
Which policies may respond, how to document a claim, and what to do if coverage is denied.
Planning tools
Six short, private tools help you plan the first day, check risk, vet a provider, estimate cost, sort out a claim, and understand waste.
Knowledge quiz
Check what you know about hazards, who can approve work, sealing off the room, disinfecting, waste, and records. This gentle quiz is for families and helpers.
Articles and resources
Read longer articles on helping people who lost someone to suicide, working with landlords and executors, and what caring, trauma-aware cleanup should look like.
Field guides
Step-by-step guides walk you through approval, privacy requests, insurance questions, and when to go back in after a suicide in a home or rental.