The Staff Need Attention too – Management Issues Post Patient Suicide

The suicide of a patient is a traumatic event for the staff who care for the patient. They will experience a sense of loss & go through the process of mourning at varying degrees. The paper examines staff reaction to an actual incident of patient suicide & parallels the reaction to stages delineated in crisis theory. The authors feel that legal & management issues must be considered. They present the idea that management issues of the staff are of equal importance as clinical issues with family.