Suicide Symposium: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Risk Assessment and the Emotional Aftermath of Patient Suicide

The loss of a patient to suicide is a common experience among mental health practitioners and trainees. Research suggests that younger, less experienced clinicians are often most keenly affected by the experience. Given the prevalence of patient loss to suicide and the subsequent emotional aftermath, our goal in creating a multidisciplinary suicide symposium was to provide a safe, structured environment where trainees and mental health practitioners could obtain collegial support and education to reduce the stigma surrounding patient suicide.

Mental health trainees and practitioners (including medical students, nurse practitioner students, psychiatry residents, psychology interns, and practicing psychologists and psychiatrists) were invited to a 4-hour symposium. The curriculum focused on assessment of risk and possible interventions, as well as addressing the loss of a patient to suicide. Teaching methods included a PowerPoint lecture; case-based, small-group discussion; and role-play. Attendees completed numbered, anonymous surveys looking at attitudes about loss and suicide before and after the symposium.

Of 35 total attendees, 22 completed both pre- and postsymposium surveys. Paired t tests revealed several statistically significant increases, including increases in comfort seeking support from a colleague after losing a patient to suicide (p = .043) and comfort seeking support from a professional after losing a patient to suicide (p = .030).

The symposium appears to have had the desired effect of increasing attendees' comfort working with patients at risk for suicide, as well as their comfort reaching out for support from others following the loss of a patient to suicide.