Thursday, Oct. 19
10:45 – 11:45 (1 hr)
Meeting Room: Finback (3rd floor – B Tower)
Juveria Zaheer*, MD, MSc; Yvonne Bergmans, PhD; Gina Nicoll, College Diploma

CanMEDS Roles:

1. Collaborator
2. Professional
3. Communicator

At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Demonstrate knowledge about the prevalence of suicide attempts and suicide deaths in psychiatric practice; 2) Gain insight into patient perspectives about interacting with health care providers before and after a suicide attempt; and 3) Understand the various emotional and behavioural responses clinicians can have to patient suicide.

This symposium combines three distinct perspectives on suicide in psychiatric practice. We start with the perspective of a patient, Gina Nicolls, who has lived through suicidality and suicide attempts, and what it’s like to bring that part of herself into the clinical setting. We will then turn to Dr. Bergmans, who has worked with people with recurrent suicide attempts for over 21 years in group and individual work contexts. She will speak to the care provider about risk tolerance issues, understanding suicide attempts, and the experience and subsequent ways of dealing with a client who has died by suicide—lastly, Drs. Furqan and Zaheer will share their perspectives as researchers examining suicide prevention. The main topic of their segment will be their recent publication, “I Was Close to Helping Him but Couldn’t Quite Get There”: Psychiatrists’ Experiences of a Patient’s Death by Suicide. They will share research on the affective and behavioural impacts of patient suicide on clinicians and positive and negative changes in practice patterns that may be seen after this important event. Together, these perspectives will shed light on a topic often not discussed openly, though encountered frequently in the clinical setting.

References:

1. Furqan Z, Cooper RB, Lustig A, et al. “I was close to helping him but couldn’t quite get there”: psychiatrists’ experiences of a patient’s death by suicide. Can J Psychiatry 2023;68(3):187–199.
2. Jobes DA, Piehl BM, Chalker SA. A collaborative approach to working with the suicidal mind. In: Pompili M, editor. Phenomenology of suicide: unlocking the suicidal mind. New York (NY): Springer International Publishing; 2018. pp 187–201.