Perception of Suicide Risk in Mental Health Professionals

Abstract

This study employed an independent-groups design (4 conditions) to investigate possible biases in the suicide risk perception of mental health professionals. Four hundred participants comprising doctors, nurses and social workers viewed a vignette describing a fictitious patient with a long-term mental illness. The case was presented as being drawn from a sample of twenty similar clinical case reports, of which 10 were associated with an outcome of suicide. The participant tasks were (i) to decide whether the presented vignette was one of those cases or not, and (ii) to provide an assessment of confidence in that decision. The 4 conditions were used to investigate whether the presence of an associated face, and the nature of the emotional state expressed by that face, affected the response profile. In fact, there were no significant differences between conditions, but there was a significant bias across all conditions towards associating the vignette with suicide, despite the base rate being pre-determined at 50%. The bias was more pronounced in doctors and in male respondents. Moreover, many participants indicated substantial confidence in their decisions. The results are discussed in terms of availability bias and over-confidence bias.

Addressing Suicide Risk According to Different Healthcare Professionals in Spain: A Qualitative Study

“…However, against the results yielded by the contributions of emergency and primary care physicians expressing a lack of training and skills in the management of individuals with suicidal behavior, mental health professionals believe that they are sufficiently qualified to address this issue. This is in contrast with a recent study stating that mental health professionals’ main difficulties in addressing suicidal behaviors are related to decision making [ 25 ]. Although not associated with training requirements, this is also indirectly revealed by our study, since psychiatrists acknowledge difficulties as regards intervention in and management of suicidal behavior.…”

“…In general, healthcare professionals are sufficiently educated about suicidal behavior, but still there are certain lacks and problems that hinder an effective approach to it [ 23 ]. However, not all health professionals have the same predisposition and interest in this aspect of public health [ 24 , 25 ]. Moreover, healthcare professionals often display negative attitudes towards patients with suicidal behaviors [ 24 ].…”

Addressing Suicide Risk According to Different Healthcare Professionals in Spain: A Qualitative Study

“…However, against the results yielded by the contributions of emergency and primary care physicians expressing a lack of training and skills in the management of individuals with suicidal behaviour, mental health professionals believe that they are sufficiently qualified to address this issue. This is in contrast with a recent study stating that mental health professionals' main difficulties in addressing suicidal behaviours are related to decision making [57]. Although not associated with training requirements, this is also indirectly revealed by our study, since psychiatrists acknowledge difficulties as regards intervention in and management of suicidal behaviour.…”

Dropout and narcissism: an exploratory research about situational factors and personality variables of the psychotherapist

“…This confirms that psychotherapeutic is an emotionally demanding kind work. In turn, this could endanger the psychic balance of narcissistically vulnerable clinicians or, in contrast, increase defensive narcissistic attitudes (Gale, Hawley, Butler, Morton, & Singhal, 2016 ; West, Dyrbye, Erwin, & Shanafelt, 2016 ).…”