Do you know how to predict and prevent suicide?
Treating people with depression and anxiety is, for me, and hopefully for you, an incredible privilege, and a source of tremendous personal satisfaction. I feel lucky to have career that is so amazingly rewarding–but there’s a dark side to our work.
Experts tell us that 10% to 15% of chronically depressed patients will eventually commit suicide, even if they receive the best available treatment. Suicide is a horrible tragedy for patients, their families, and their therapists as well.
The impact can be devastating. Therapists typically struggle with feelings of intense loss, anxiety, failure and shame, and may also face the horrors of a humiliating and enraging malpractice suit which can drag on for years. Family members, friends, and therapists may struggle with this tragedy for years, or even decades, without resolution or relief.
Most therapists avoid talking about patient suicides due to feelings of anxiety, guilt and shame, and the fear of being judged. In case you missed it, you can still listen to David’s August 18, 2018 Feeling Good Podcast on suicide prevention and learn how to protect yourself, your patients, and their families from this horrific outcome.
You will learn what works–and what doesn’t–and you may save patient lives. You may also save yourself from a great deal of grief as well, so you can truly enjoy your clinical work without the fear of losing a patient in this terrible way.
If you want to take a deep dive into this subject, check out this May 15, 2017 blog on Suicide prevention as well. This may be anxiety provoking in the here-and-now, but may save you from far greater pain somewhere down the road!
This blog is part of a new approach I am using to send out blogs on topics of importance, with links to learn more, based on my previous podcasts and blogs. I hope you like it! let me know what you think. In addition, I have to thank a TEAM therapist and podcast fan, Angela Poch, for helping to make this a possibility!
David
