The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Patient Safety
Volume 5 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1519124
Requirements for effective investigation and learning after suicide: The views of persons with lived experience and professionals
Provisionally accepted- 1 School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden
- 2 Region Jönköping county, Jönköping, Jönköping, Sweden
- 3 Department of Experimental Psychology, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, United Kingdom
- 4 Futurum, Jönköping, Sweden
- 5 Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, pychiatry, Lund, Sweden
- 6 Office for Psychiatry and Habilitation, Psychiatry Research Skåne, Lund, Sweden
- 7 Region Skåne, Lund, Sweden
Objective This study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of what persons with lived experience and professionals with experience of patient safety, suicide research and investigations consider to be most important in investigations of healthcare before suicide to learn and improve the care of suicidal patients.Method A qualitative study based on 15 semistructured interviews with persons with lived experience of suicidality and professionals. Thematic analysis was used.The persons with lived experience and the professionals agreed that a holistic approach to the investigations is crucial. They should embrace a longer period of time, involve family and significant others, integrate the perspective and expectations of the patient, and analyze factors of significance for suicidality, suicide prevention, and safety. There is a need to improve the investigations through involvement of all stakeholders and actors, securing competence in the investigation team and prioritizing cases to investigate.Conclusions Substantial changes in the approach and performance of investigations of suicide in healthcare are needed to make these investigations valuable for increasing the safety of the care of suicidal patients. A holistic perspective in the analysis is crucial for understanding the suicidal process, the interacting factors, and the care process preceding suicide. Competencies in suicidality, suicide prevention and patient safety must be included in the analysis team to ensure high quality and relevance. To improve the value of these investigations, we suggest establishing a template based on current knowledge to ensure attention to variables of significance for a safe care of suicidal patients.
Keywords: suicide1, suicide prevention2, patient safety3, investigation4, Improvement5, mental health6
Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 04 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fröding, Vincent, Andersson Gäre, Westrin and Axel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Elin Fröding, School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.