Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T11:25:09.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

RE: Someone is to blame: the impact of suicide on the mind of the bereaved (including clinicians)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2024

Maria Cecilia Atkins*
Affiliation:
Consultant Psychiatrist, Chair of RCPsych Wales Devolved Council, Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Type
Correspondence
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

This article is extremely important and provides an opportunity to begin having rational and psychologically informed conversations about suicide in an increasingly litigious and blaming societal context. The collaboration of individual clinicians with the unhelpful beliefs surrounding suicide has been well described, and the importance of reflective space to recognise such reactions is clear. But there are other examples of collusion in ‘delusional’ beliefs about suicide in the expert opinions used, for instance, in coroners’ inquests. The new Expert Witness Lead in the Royal College of Psychiatrists might have a role in positively influencing the quality of such work. The RCPsych Wales Devolved Council inquest subgroup have been reflecting on the increasingly adversarial nature of coroners’ inquests in recent years. Challenging this as a profession is surely what we must do as a College, in the interests of recruitment and retention if nothing else?

Declaration of interest

None.

Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.