Being truly open and honest with bereaved families
Failure to answer legitimate questions can often prevent families cope and recover from their loss. It can leave them psychologically stuck, still grieving, unable to move on.
Failure to answer legitimate questions can often prevent families cope and recover from their loss. It can leave them psychologically stuck, still grieving, unable to move on.
Commentary over many years has described the importance of meaningful family engagement following a patient safety incident. Failing to effectively involve patients and families excludes their experiences from investigations and perpetuates feelings that their voices are not heard.
To prevent such deaths requires health professionals to take a broader view of risk than ideation. This is also true for tragic homicides by people with acute mental illness. Health professionals need to listen attentively to the concerns of family members, and/or friends.
It is the role of the FLO to provide this support, create, manage and foster relationships, engender trust; facilitate communication and create links between any other professionals whose input is required and the families concerned facilitate communication and create links between any other professionals whose input is required and the families concerned.
Between four and ten women take their own lives each week in the UK because of domestic abuse. For families this is a dark, lonely and challenging place.
Many families report that they are afraid to raise concerns and complaints. They worry that doing so will have a negative impact on the support that their loved one receives, or that they will be further alienated from being involved in their loved ones lives. This has to change!
Many years ago, as a young woman, I also wanted to change the world. I wanted the inequalities within and between countries to be reduced.
The lead psychiatrist for the mental health trust phoned me. She was thoughtful, reflective and kind. I felt that she and her team were trying to reflect and learn.
My much loved daughter in law Mariana Pinto died, aged 32, on 16 October 2016. The Coroner, issued a narrative verdict at the end of the inquest, on 13 March 2017: “Mariana Pinto died on Sunday, 16 October 2016, when she stepped over the balcony of her home, fell from …
Last week I met a lovely young woman whose brother had died from a brain tumour 10 months earlier. She felt that she could tell me about this because I met her in a work capacity and she had already listened to me talking about grief and my own struggles …