Impact of suicide by people receiving MH services on their family (v1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the impact of suicide on families where the deceased was in receipt of mental health services.
IRAS ID
132118
Contact name
Farzana Ali
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Huddersfield
Research summary
Current literature highlights the lack of studies in suicide bereavement compared to studies in bereavement in general. This study aims to understand the experiences and needs of people bereaved by suicide. This will be done by interviewing families of patients who were receiving mental health services from South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 12 months prior to their suicide. The Trust’s Patient Safety Team investigates cases of possible suicides resulting in an investigation report being shared with the family. Only families who have received this report will be approached to participate in the research using a carefully designed recruitment and consent process.
The study also aims to identify whether families have any particular needs which should be addressed. This is very important as previous studies in this area have shown that only a small number of people dealing with suicide access support interventions such as counselling or bereavement support groups. It would be useful to find out how people not accessing these services are able to deal with suicide, especially when the deceased relative was in receipt of mental health services.
To acknowledge multiple perspectives in this research, health professionals who have been involved with the recruited families will also be interviewed if prior consent from the families is provided. These health professionals will be asked to discuss their professional experience and perceptions of the needs of the family, how the family has dealt with suicide and the support offered.
The researcher will interview family members about their experiences in their homes or NHS settings. The interviews will be recorded digitally with consent, transcribed verbatim and then the transcripts will be analysed using a grounded theory approach. This method has a number of stages which need to be followed in order to collect and analyse information gathered from interviews. Once all the analysis of all the information collected has been completed, it should produce findings which should provide a better understanding of the impact of suicide by someone in receipt of mental health services on their family. The findings will be shared with the Trust to help them improve or change the support they offer.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/YH/0015
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jan 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion