Citation

Cazares PT, Santiago P, Moulton D, Moran S, Tsai A. Acad. Psychiatry 2015; 39(4): 393-397.

Affiliation

National Capital Consortium Psychiatry Residency, Bethesda, MD, USA, elisea.avalos@med.navy.mil.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Psychiatric Publishing)

DOI

10.1007/s40596-015-0352-7

PMID

26063679

Abstract

Suicide is an event that is almost universally encountered by psychiatrists and psychiatry residents. Because psychiatric patients are at a higher risk for completing suicide than patients of other specialties, psychiatry residents are at risk for experiencing the suicide of a patient during their training. A review of the literature shows that there is continually growing research into the negative emotional effects of patient suicides on psychiatry residents and the need for clear response protocols when a suicide occurs, also known as postvention protocols. However, there are no Graduate Medical Education requirements to specifically train psychiatry residents about this, even with a well-voiced desire by residents to receive this training. In the National Capitol Consortium Psychiatry Residency, encounters with patient suicides by residents in a time of war led us to a place in which interventions were designed and instituted to care for the caregiver, in this case focusing on psychiatry trainees. Our process and product, described here, offers an example of a systematic postvention response. It addresses aspects of what is known in the research base, combined with acknowledgement of the human response and the institutional need for a consistent and objective response.

Language: en