The powerful destructive effect of suicide. How to help those bereaved, including families, friends and clinicians

Suicide is a particularly devastating death. Those who are bereaved are left with feelings of guilt, profound uncertainty about why this has happened, and self-blame. In the service of self-preservation and the need to preserve the relationship with the deceased, narratives explaining the death are constructed and held onto. This workshop will firstly explore why suicide is so hard to mourn, address fundamental issues of responsibility and agency, and then will discuss how to work effectively with those who have been bereaved with an open heart.

Chair: Dr Maria Papanastassiou, North East London Foundation Trust

Why is suicide so hard to mourn? - Dr Rachel Gibbons, Chair of the Working Group on the Effect of Suicide and Homicide on Clinicians at the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Grappling with issues of agency and responsibility - how personal experience can inform clinical understanding - Professor David Mosse, SOAS University

What we have learned working with those bereaved by suicide - Dame Clare Gerada, President, Royal College of General Practitioners