Title: The Development of a Parental Suicide Bereavement Training Pack for Health Professionals
Funder: Department of Health (England)

Abstract: Background It is estimated between 6-10 `significant others' are affected by each suicide and are themselves between 80-300% more likely to commit suicide than the general population. Parental suicide bereavement is considered to be the most distressing form of loss and our understanding of how to assist survivors is far behind our understanding of other `at risk' populations. Similarly, there are no specialist provisions for treatment within the NHS. Whilst studies have focused on the psychological distress health professionals experience when meeting bereaved families, less attention has been paid to their responses and intervention approaches and the way these are perceived by those bereaved. Aims Aim: To develop a training pack for health professionals to support them in dealing with a parent bereaved by suicide (BBS) Objectives: 1. To explore parents experiences of contact with health professionals whilst caring for their (suicidal) child and after the child's death. 2. To investigate barriers to access to good quality health services for parents bereaved by suicide, including those caring for siblings of the deceased child. 3. To investigate health professionals' views of difficulties in providing care for parents bereaved by suicide, including their views of training needs 4. To develop a training pack to provide health professionals (HP) with knowledge, skills and a framework in which to guide them on how to respond and care for parents BBS. Plan of Investigation Qualitative methods will be used. Participants will include parents BBS and HP responsible for their care. Parents of offspring, aged between 16-35 yrs, who have had either a suicide or open verdict returned, will be identified from the deceased's inquest file.The deceased will have died in Greater Manchester (GM) during 2009-2010 and will be identified by the National Confidential Inquiry which records suicides. Parents will reside and service providers will serve those in the GM area. The bereaved parents and HP who come into contact with parents will be asked to take part in semi-structured interview which will explore parents’ perception of HP responses to them and HP perception of caring for the bereaved parents. Transcripts of the interviews will be analysed using Framework Analysis Potential Impact Suicide bereavement (SB) is associated with psychological problems and an increased risk of suicide . It is estimated that up 50,000 people are BBS annually. An essential element of good practice is the alleviation of distress and morbidity amongst this vulnerable population. It is recognised that health professionals are often uncertain how to respond to those BBS [1] and have no specific model to help guide their response when caring for them. The findings from the study will be used to develop a training pack to inform and guide health professionals on how to respond to bereaved parents. This study would advance our understanding of suicide bereavement and would be a development from the Department of Health's SB pack which provides practical advice and guidance for bereaved families[2]


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH