“I Honestly Would Not Have Known What to Do”: An Exploratory Study of Perspectives on Client Suicide Among Vocational Rehabilitation Support Staff

Abstract

Despite the high prevalence of suicide both overall and among people with disabilities in particular, little research has explored suicide in the context of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) system or in counseling support staff in general. We analyzed the responses of 14 VR support staff who responded to an open-ended qualitative prompt regarding their experiences with suicide training and competency. Key themes included a perceived lack of and desire for more training regarding suicide, seeking and receiving suicide training outside of VR, and a perceived lack of resources for working with suicidal clients. Responses also underscored the heavy emotional impact of working with these clients, especially when one feels unprepared to do so. These results suggest that it is important to provide VR support staff with resources and training for addressing suicide in their client populations.

Healthcare staff's views on responding to suicide and self‐harm: Part I

“…In the past, training has consistently led to improvement in knowledge among staff 5 and training for nonmental health professionals has led to an increase in appropriate referrals 13 . Furthermore, recent evidence highlights the importance of training relating to suicide assessment and intervention, to help staff and others to identify and respond quickly to those who are showing warning signs 12,30,31 …”

“…In addition, when healthcare staff are poorly informed about self‐harm and suicide, they are less likely to identify at‐risk individuals 10,11 . The literature has identified a desire for more training and resources for use when working with suicidal patients, 12 and specifically, the need to train a large number of staff on basic risk assessment and referral as part of comprehensive training initiatives 13 . This is important when we consider that risk approaches in this specific area are complex and multifactorial 9 …”