Suicide without ideation 

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.

My FLO experience

One hand holding another hand in support

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.

Complaints are Gold

hand reaching for a light bulb as a metaphor for reaching for inspiration

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!

Inquest – a family’s perspective

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 the third floor, and after some minutes rolled off the glass roof on which she had landed to the ground below. Her actions were deliberate, but she did not have the understanding necessary to categorise these as suicide.  She was in a confused state with features of psychosis.  This was …

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Using positive engagement to fill in the gaps

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 to find a way through traumatic bereavement. As we talked, she opened up a bit more and started telling me how she was feeling.  I haven’t been able to get the conversation out of my head and the more I thought about it, the more I felt the need to …

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