Almost every client we see, who is at high risk of suicide, is unwell. They are either clearly clinically depressed, or have some other mental health issue such as PTSD or Borderline Personality Disorder (EUPD). Most people who are well do not want to end their lives. Mental health services here put all the focus on mental capacity (being able to understand what youre saying to them, being able to retain information etc). If you have mental capacity you are told - directly by our mental health service - Its your choice to end your life Its your decision to end your life. Despite the fact that they may be mentally unwell. This is being said repeatedly to patients who are mentally unwell. I have been told this over and over again by clients who come to us and say it is pointless to seek support from mental health services because they just tell me its my decision to kill myself. So this phrase, at the very least, is making clients/patients think there is no point in accessing support from mental health services. There is also a huge danger of this phrase being interpreted in a number of different ways - one client said it made him think they were saying Go ahead and do it. Absolutely alarming. This is being said to people who are unwell - that is why they are under the care of mental health services. They are vulnerable. As I have said so many times, a person who is mentally unwell may well make a decision that they would not make, if they were well. If you are mentally unwell, then you are usually thinking, interpreting and responding in a completely different way from how you would usually. Ending your life is so rarely a calm, considered decision. Mostly you are in chaos, experiencing a type of emotional pain that feels unbearable, distraught, unable to think clearly at all - at the moment when you attempt suicide. Even if, two hours earlier, when you were assessed by mental health services, you were not in that place. Things change and can deteriorate rapidly. You absolutely go into a different place at the point of suicide. This happens almost without exception, in my experience of being with clients at the point of suicide, and my own personal experience of being in that place. It is such a complex, fragile, unpredictable state. It is, in my opinion, absolutely wrong to tell people that it is their decision to kill themselves. That could only be said by someone who has never been at high risk of suicide themself, or could not empathise enough to put themself in that persons situation.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 14:29:53 +0000
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