Citation

Wiglesworth A. Clin. Psychol. Sci. Pract. 2022; 29(2): 117-120.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1037/cps0000086

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In their systematic review paper, MacGarry and colleagues (Mac-Garry et al., 2022) synthesize quantitative and qualitative literature examining the impact of adult patient suicidal behavior on provider professional and personal wellbeing. For the purposes of their manuscript, providers included psychologists, psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, psychoanalysts, clinicians, mental health personnel, and psychiatric social workers. Common personal impacts of patient suicidal behavior included feelings of fear, self-doubt or guilt, a sense of failure, and hopelessness. Professionally, providers reported changes to their professional practices (e.g., becoming "defensive," engaging in checking behaviors), a reduction in their feelings of competency, and experiencing judgment from their coworkers or organization. Some studies examined provider-specific factors that modified the impact of patient suicidal behavior on wellbeing, which included the culture of the organization, provider age or experience level (with mixed results), provider sex, and quality of relationship with patient. The authors highlight the importance of examining the interplay of factors across levels (e.g., personal, professional) in future research to better understand when, which, and how providers are negatively impacted by patient suicidal behavior. Further, they suggest that changes to training and in organizational policies could be made to support providers when patient suicidal behaviors do occur. While these suggestions hold promise for improving training and promoting resilience among providers, there remain potentially important factors that were not considered within the scope of this review that may play a critical role in this complex system of interactions. As such, this commentary will (a) unpack assumptions about suicide risk that may underlie observed impacts on provider wellbeing; (b) explore how patient-specific factors, primarily reporting hesitancy and atypical suicide trajectories, might disrupt these assumptions; (c) use developmental stage and ethnoracial and cultural diversity as two illustrative examples of these factors; and (d) provide preliminary recommendations for providers in navigating these factors. © 2022. American Psychological Association

Language: en