S14 The powerful destructive effect of suicide. How to help those bereaved, including families, friends and clinicians
Date: Tuesday 21 June
Time: 11.55 - 13.10
Stream: Clinical Practice
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
Speakers
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Dr Rachel Gibbons
Chair of the working group on the effect of suicide and homicide on clinicians at the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Please email congress@rcpsych.ac.uk or call 020 8618 4120 with any enquiries.