Health workers unprepared for trauma of dealing with suicide

HEALTH workers are often unprepared for the trauma of patients committing suicide and should be given more time to recover, a survey has found.

Some psychiatrists and ambulance crews have experienced up to 25 suicides of clients or patients in their careers, according to research among workers in the North Eastern Health Board. For emergency teams, it often involved treating people who have taken overdoses or cut themselves and subsequently died.

Almost 20% of the 447 respondents had a patient or client under their care die by suicide.