Exploring the Impact of Suicidal Behaviour on Staff Working in Acute Psychiatric Inpatient Services

This thesis was interested in exploring the experience of working with service users’ suicidal behaviour for staff working in acute psychiatric inpatient services.

The first section of this portfolio comprises a literature review of the existing research exploring the impact of service user suicide on mental health professionals working in acute psychiatric inpatient settings. Nine papers were identified utilising a systematic search strategy. Their quality was appraised using a combination of the QualSyst Tool and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Checklist. Their results were further synthesised through narrative analysis. Findings suggested that service user suicide had an emotionally significant impact on staff which tended to be hidden in the workplace. The experience of ‘non-qualified’ staff, however, was missing in the literature.

The second portion of this portfolio outlines the results of an empirical paper, qualitatively exploring the experience of suicidal behaviour (attempted and completed suicide) on ‘non-qualified’ staff based in acute psychiatric inpatient settings. Semi-structured interviews were utilised to interview 10 staff’s experiences and data was analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Four themes were highlighted; ‘Direct personal impact’, ‘Unrealistic expectations’, ‘Attempting to contain impact’ and ‘Acclimatisation’, containing 10 sub-themes. The results provided insight into the specific experience of working with suicidal behaviour as a non-qualified member of staff, and recommendations are suggested to improve perceived support in its aftermath.

The final section of this portfolio is an executive summary of the empirical paper. This has been developed to be disseminated to those who have expressed an interest in the research and for those with organisational responsibility of acute psychiatric inpatient settings.