When a Patient Commits Suicide

Dealing with patient suicide is one of the most compelling problems that faces mental health and social professionals who are at high risk of experiencing at least one patient suicide during their career.  An estimated 22-39% of psychologists, 51-82% of psychiatrists, and 33% of social workers have lost a patient to suicide at some point in their professional life.   Patient suicide can have a devastating impact on the personal and professional life of the clinician involved as well as the institution in which the clinician works.  A paper published in a recent issue of Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention  investigates the impact of patient suicide on the reactions and working practices of mental health and social professionals. It also examines how such an impact may vary depending on the professionals’ characteristics, their relationship with the patient, as well as the institutional setting in which they work. A sample of 275 professionals working in sociomedical institutions in French-speaking Switzerland completed a questionnaire to examine professional reactions to suicide as well as procedural changes that resulted.  The results showed that patient suicide can cause a wide range of long-lasting reactions and changes in the working practices of mental health and social professionals. Professional’s gender, place of suicide, as well as responsibility for and emotional attachment to the patient significantly influence the impact that a patient suicide has on such professionals. Professional’s age, the type of profession, the number of suicides experienced, and previous suicide attempts by the deceased patient were also found to play a significant role with regard to changes in working practices. The authors concluded that, in addition to the emotional and professional impact, patient suicide may have also a formative influence, encouraging professionals to review and improve their working practices.  The paper provides recommendations to help mental health and social professionals who have experienced a patient suicide.

For the abstract