How therapists react to patient's suicide: findings and consequences for health care professionals' wellbeing

Abstract

Objectives: To test the robustness of the findings of previous studies in a large aggregated sample regarding (a) the impact of a patient's suicide on therapist's distress; (b) identify a potential subgroup of therapists needing special postvention; (c) and assess potential differences in overall distress between professional groups and at different levels of care.

Methods: A questionnaire, characterizing the therapists, their reactions and the patients, had been sent out to 201 psychiatric hospitals in Germany providing different levels of care. Aggregated data from previous studies have been used.

Results: In 39.6% of all cases, therapists suffer from severe distress after a patients' suicide. The global item "overall distress" can be used as an indicator to identify a subgroup of therapists that might need individualized postvention. No significant difference in overall distress experienced was observed between professional groups and at different levels of care.

Conclusion: Our data suggest that identifying the severely distressed subgroup could be done using a visual analogue scale for overall distress. As a consequence, more specific, individualized and intensified help could be provided to these professionals, helping them to overcome distress and thereby ensuring delivery of high quality care to the patient.

Keywords: Emotional reaction; Patient suicide; Postvention; Therapists' reaction.