Occupational exposure to suicide: A review of research on the experiences of mental health professionals and first responders.

Susanna Every-Palmer,Renan Lopes De Lyra,Vedat Sar,Gabrielle Jenkin,Sarah K Mckenzie

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251038

Susanna Every-Palmer, Renan Lopes De Lyra + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251038

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Apr 30, 2021
Citations: 22	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Otago

Abstract

Exposure to suicide is a major factor for suicidality. Mental health professionals and first responders are often exposed to suicide while on-duty. The objective of this scoping review is to describe the state of current research on exposure to suicide among mental health professionals and first responders, focusing on the prevalence and impact of exposure to suicide, and to identify current gaps in the literature. We searched MEDLINE, Scopus, PsychNET, and Web of Science and identified 25 eligible papers. Between 31.5-95.0% of professionals had been exposed to suicide. Exposure to suicide had impacts on personal life, professional life, and mental health; and caused emotional distress. There was little research investigating exposure to suicide among police officers, firefighters, and paramedics. More research existed on mental health professionals, but none assessed exposure to suicide as a risk for suicide amongst this group. The review concludes that exposure to suicide is distressing for mental health professionals, and likely to be for first responder however, more research on these groups, especially paramedics, is required.

Highlights

Suicide is a global health and social issue, with an estimated 800,000 people dying by suicide each year [1]
In the 17 studies that have used web surveys described in this review, the researchers have been able to describe the population sampled since they have included specific occupational/professional group, self-selection remains a limitation to the generalization of the findings
The scientific body of literature has focused on studying exposure to suicide among different health professionals, but less attention has been given to first responders, albeit with some limited, mainly quantitative research

Summary

Introduction

Suicide is a global health and social issue, with an estimated 800,000 people dying by suicide each year [1]. It has been estimated that between six and 20 people, usually family members and acquaintances of those who died, are adversely affected psychologically and emotionally [1, 2]. This phenomenon has been described as ‘exposure to suicide’. We are interested in two groups of people, who because of their occupations, have greater exposure to suicide than the rest of the population; mental health professionals and first responders [3, 4].

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Conclusion