Losing a patient to suicide: Navigating the aftermath
Focus on clinicians’ needs as well as legal, administrative, and institutional concerns.
Second of 2 parts.
Because a suicide loss is likely to affect a clinician’s subsequent clinical activity, Schultz encourages supervisors to help clinicians monitor this impact on their work.14
A supportive environment is key
Losing a patient to suicide is a complicated, potentially traumatic process that many mental health clinicians will face. Yet with comprehensive and supportive postvention policies in place, clinicians who are impacted are more likely to experience healing and posttraumatic growth in both personal and professional domains.
Bottom Line
Although often traumatic, losing a patient to suicide presents clinicians with an opportunity for personal and professional growth. Following established postvention protocols can help ensure that legal, institutional, and administrative needs are balanced with the emotional needs of affected clinicians and staff, as well as those of the surviving family.
Related Resources
- American Association of Suicidology Clinician Survivor Task Force. www.cliniciansurvivor.org.
- Dotinga R. Coping when a patient commits suicide. July 21, 2017. www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/142975/depression/coping-when-patient-commits-suicide.
- Gutin N. Losing a patent to suicide: What we know. Part 1. 2019;18(10):14-16,19-22,30-32.
