Bereavement guidelines for mental health professionals.

A national charity has developed bereavement guidelines to help mental health professionals support the families and friends of mentally ill people who have suicided.SANE Australia created the guidelines after research revealed families and friends of people with mental illness who had suicided were not receiving the support they needed, despite the fact people who are bereaved by suicide are at a much greater risk of health problems and suicide themselves.
SANE Australia suicide prevention project coordinator Sarah Coker said family and friends of mentally ill people who have suicided contend with an extra layer of complex emotions.“Perhaps there are issues that the family feel, such as they should have got better help for that person, that they were unable to save them from that illness…it can be a very complex grief,” she said.“Our research showed that a lot of families weren’t receiving a lot of support after their loved one died by suicide, and they found that quite disappointing and it further impacted on their grief.”Ms Coker said the guidelines were created for mental health nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health workers to use as a consistent approach to assist bereaved families.“In some cases, the assistance might have been happening but it tends to be off the back of an individual worker’s initiative and quite ad hoc and not something that’s necessarily been endorsed by an organisation,” she said.“The guidelines are a way of making this policy.”Ms Coker, who recently spoke about the issue at the Australian Psychological Society’s counselling psychology conference, said the guidelines detail a “simple and common sense” approach, focused on acknowledging the grief and keeping communications open, such as answering questions or explaining processes, and providing referrals to appropriate services.“Perhaps the mental health service might be able to support the family themselves through counselling, sometimes it might be the friends of the person that has died – they might need some extra support and they might also be clients of that service,” she said.“If it’s not appropriate to offer counselling internally, then to refer them to the appropriate service.”SANE Australia offers bereavement guidelines, a mental illness and bereavement kit, and workshops to assist mental health services, available here.Bereavement guidelines for mental health professionals A national charity has developed bereavement guidelines to help mental health professionals support the families and friends of mentally ill people who have suicided.SANE Australia created the guidelines after research revealed families and friends of people with mental illness who had suicided were not receiving the support they needed, despite the fact people who are bereaved by suicide are at a much greater risk of health problems and suicide themselves.SANE Australia suicide prevention project coordinator Sarah Coker said family and friends of mentally ill people who have suicided contend with an extra layer of complex emotions.“Perhaps there are issues that the family feel, such as they should have got better help for that person, that they were unable to save them from that illness…it can be a very complex grief,” she said.“Our research showed that a lot of families weren’t receiving a lot of support after their loved one died by suicide, and they found that quite disappointing and it further impacted on their grief.”Ms Coker said the guidelines were created for mental health nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health workers to use as a consistent approach to assist bereaved families.“In some cases, the assistance might have been happening but it tends to be off the back of an individual worker’s initiative and quite ad hoc and not something that’s necessarily been endorsed by an organisation,” she said.“The guidelines are a way of making this policy.”Ms Coker, who recently spoke about the issue at the Australian Psychological Society’s counselling psychology conference, said the guidelines detail a “simple and common sense” approach, focused on acknowledging the grief and keeping communications open, such as answering questions or explaining processes, and providing referrals to appropriate services.“Perhaps the mental health service might be able to support the family themselves through counselling, sometimes it might be the friends of the person that has died – they might need some extra support and they might also be clients of that service,” she said.“If it’s not appropriate to offer counselling internally, then to refer them to the appropriate service.”SANE Australia offers bereavement guidelines, a mental illness and bereavement kit, and workshops to assist mental health services, available here.Bereavement guidelines for mental health professionalsA national charity has developed bereavement guidelines to help mental health professionals support the families and friends of mentally ill people who have suicided.SANE Australia created the guidelines after research revealed families and friends of people with mental illness who had suicided were not receiving the support they needed, despite the fact people who are bereaved by suicide are at a much greater risk of health problems and suicide themselves.SANE Australia suicide prevention project coordinator Sarah Coker said family and friends of mentally ill people who have suicided contend with an extra layer of complex emotions.“Perhaps there are issues that the family feel, such as they should have got better help for that person, that they were unable to save them from that illness…it can be a very complex grief,” she said.“Our research showed that a lot of families weren’t receiving a lot of support after their loved one died by suicide, and they found that quite disappointing and it further impacted on their grief.”Ms Coker said the guidelines were created for mental health nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health workers to use as a consistent approach to assist bereaved families.“In some cases, the assistance might have been happening but it tends to be off the back of an individual worker’s initiative and quite ad hoc and not something that’s necessarily been endorsed by an organisation,” she said.“The guidelines are a way of making this policy.”Ms Coker, who recently spoke about the issue at the Australian Psychological Society’s counselling psychology conference, said the guidelines detail a “simple and common sense” approach, focused on acknowledging the grief and keeping communications open, such as answering questions or explaining processes, and providing referrals to appropriate services.“Perhaps the mental health service might be able to support the family themselves through counselling, sometimes it might be the friends of the person that has died – they might need some extra support and they might also be clients of that service,” she said.“If it’s not appropriate to offer counselling internally, then to refer them to the appropriate service.”SANE Australia offers bereavement guidelines, a mental illness and bereavement kit, and workshops to assist mental health services, available here.