Women and Mental Health SIG Webinar | The Edges of Understanding: Suicide and Domestic Abuse

This webinar brings together speakers from psychiatry, academia and the third sector to explore the complex, often overlapping experiences of people affected by suicide and domestic abuse – there is growing evidence of a link between the two.  These issues do not have single causes, nor can they be understood through one perspective alone.  Our aim today is not to provide simplistic answers but to deepen our understanding of patterns and context, and how to respond with sensitivity and clinical skill. Our speakers will present some important and thought-provoking ideas and data on this challenging topic to help us think about how mental health services should approach this issue and where and how we can help.

Dr Rachel Gibbons is a psychoanalyst, group analyst, and consultant psychiatrist. She works on the nature of suicide and suicide bereavement and has been at the forefront of developing psychodynamic psychiatry in the UK. Her leadership roles at the College have included chairing national working groups on the impact of suicide and homicide on clinicians, as well as leading initiatives in patient safety across UK mental health services. She is the current vice chair of the psychotherapy faculty.

Tim Woodhouse is the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme Manager based in Kent County Council’s Public Health team. Since 2018, and as part of his professional role, he has been researching the link between domestic abuse and suicide. He has recently completed a Churchill Fellowship looking for global best practice to reduce the risk of domestic abuse-related suicides and has very recently published his report “The person most likely to kill a victim of domestic abuse… is themselves”. In the report, he identifies 66 ways to reduce domestic abuse-related suicides, some of which are aimed at the government, some are aimed at local commissioners, and some are aimed at front line practitioners. He has also just started a PhD at the University of Kent to explore the subject in more detail.

Dr Pauline Turnbull is Project Director and Academic Lead of the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH), which makes recommendations to improve safety and reduce suicide in mental health services. Pauline has a particular interest in women’s health and in driving change in self-harm and suicide prevention by implementing evidence-based recommendations. Pauline is currently leading the set-up of a national data collection of suicide by health staff on behalf of NHS England and is co-lead of a Global Health NIHR Grant to implement learning from the UK model to improve suicide data collection in India.

This event will be recorded and available to all registered delegates to watch on demand. The recording will be available within one week of the live event taking place and will be emailed out to all registered delegates. The recording will be available to watch for three months from the event taking place.

We ask that all delegates ensure that their email address associated with their membership account is correct and up to date as this is where all correspondence will be sent.

Please note this webinar recording will not be available to purchase post event.