Suicide-Bereaved Individuals’ Attitudes Toward Therapists
Abstract
Background: Suicide-bereaved individuals represent an important group impacted by suicide. Understanding their experiences following the suicide of a loved one is an important research domain, despite receiving limited attention. Although suicide-bereaved individuals may benefit from mental health treatment, their attitudes toward therapy and therapists are poorly understood. Aims: The present study aimed to understand the extent to which bereaved individuals’ attitudes toward therapy and therapists are impacted by whether their loved one was in therapy at the time of death. Method: Suicide-bereaved individuals (N = 243) from the United States were recruited to complete an online survey about their experience with and attitudes toward therapy and therapists following the suicide of a loved one. Results: Bereaved individuals whose loved one was in therapy at the time of death (N = 48, 19.8%) reported more negative and less positive attitudes toward the treating therapist than those whose loved one was not in therapy at the time of death (N = 81, 33.3%) or whose loved one was never in therapy/the deceased’s therapy status was unknown (N = 114, 46.9%). Conclusion: The deceased’s involvement with a therapist appears to be an important factor impacting the experience of bereaved individuals and should be considered when attempting to engage these individuals in postvention.
References
2010). Survivors of suicide fact sheet – 2010. Retrieved from www.suicidology.org/Portals/14/docs/Survivors/Loss%20Survivors/Survivors-of-Suicide-Fact-Sheet_2010.pdf
(2011). Estimating the population of survivors of suicide: Seeking an evidence base. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 41, 110–116. doi: 10.1111/j.1943-278X.2010.00009.x
(2013). Exposure to suicide and identification as survivor: Results from a random-digit dial survey. Crisis, 34, 413–419. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000220
(2009). A call for research: The need to better understand the impact of support groups for suicide survivors. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 39, 269–281. doi: 10.1521/suli.2009.39.3.269
(2011). How the Internet is changing the experience of bereavement by suicide: A qualitative study in the UK. Health, 15, 173–187.
(2008). Internet support groups for suicide survivors: A new mode for gaining bereavement assistance. Omega, 57, 217–243.
(2001). Is suicide bereavement different? A reassessment of the literature. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 91–102. doi: 10.1521/suli.31.1.91.21310
(2010). On-line support and resources for people bereaved through suicide: What is available? Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 40, 640–650.
(2004). Complicated grief in survivors of suicide. Crisis, 25, 12–18.
(2003). Bereaved parents’ outcomes 4 to 60 months after their children’s death by accident, suicide or homicide: A comparative study demonstrating differences. Death Studies, 27, 39–61.
(2003). Suicide ideation among parents bereaved by the violdent deaths of their children. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 24, 25.
(2002). Suicide survivors’ perceptions of the treating clinician. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 32, 158–166. doi: 10.1521/suli.32.2.158.24406
(2013). Bereavement after the suicide of a significant other. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 55, 256–263. doi: 10.4103/0019-5545.117145
(2014). What do the bereaved by suicide communicate in online support groups? A content analysis. Crisis, 35, 27–35.
(2008). Suicide survivor’s mental health and grief reactions: A systematic review of controlled studies. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 38, 13–29. doi: 10.1521/suli.2008.38.1.13
(2013). Attitudes toward therapists with patient suicides. In J. CutliffeJ. SantosP. LinksJ. ZaheerH. HarderF. CampbellR. EynanEds., Routledge international handbook of clinical suicide research (pp. 167–178). New York, NY: Routledge.
(