Preventing Clinician Suicide

A Call to Action During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Bibliographic Data

ID21612406
AuthorsChristine Moutier (0000-0002-3826-7160, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, corresponding author), Christine Yu Moutier (C.Y. Moutieris chief medical officer, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, New York, New York; ORCID:.), Michael F Myers (M.F. Myersis professor of clinical psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, New York; ORCID:.), Jennifer Breen Feist (J.B. Feistis cofounder, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, and president, Acorn Management, LLC, Charlottesville, Virginia.), J Corey Feist (0009-0007-7708-925X, J.C. Feistis cofounder, Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, chief executive officer, University of Virginia Physicians Group, and adjunct faculty member, University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Charlottesville, Virginia.), Sidney Zisook (0000-0003-3341-9185, S. Zisookis distinguished professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California; ORCID:.)
Year2021
Volume96
Issue5
Pages624-628
Publication date2021-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAcademic Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1040-2446 • E-ISSN: 1938-808X
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/acm.0000000000003972
PMID33570850
OpenAlexW3127526262
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited23

In this commentary, the authors offer a call to action in the long-standing fight to prevent clinicians from dying by suicide. In April 2020, the nation was shocked by the suicide of New York City emergency physician Dr. Lorna Breen, who died while recovering from COVID-19. She joins an unknown number of clinicians who have taken their lives over the past year. The authors introduce Dr. Breen, a highly talented physician working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and examine how pervasive distress and suicide are in clinicians. Then, they explain the lived experience movement and highlight how clinicians speaking openly about their mental illness and treatment are making it easier for their colleagues to seek lifesaving help, despite the stigma still surrounding mental illness and treatment in medicine. The authors sort through the science of clinician distress; critique how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the lives of clinicians; and describe existing national initiatives to address clinician stress, burnout, and suicide. Finally, they recommend evidence-based actions to prevent clinician suicide that multiple stakeholder groups can take, including regulatory agencies, licensing boards, and hospital privileging boards; specialty boards, professional associations, and continuing education organizations; medical educators; and individual clinicians. Suicide is a complex but generally preventable cause of death. Those in medicine must forge ahead with collective momentum. Dr. Breen, so many other clinicians, and those they have left behind deserve nothing less

Call to action · Distress · Medical emergency · Mental health · Mental illness · Pandemic · Poison control · Psychiatry · Specialty · Suicide prevention · Clinical Psychology · COVID-19 and healthcare impacts · Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout · Medicine · Nursing · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Psychology