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04 May 2017
by Patrick Watt

Suicide in the workplace: what to do when the worst happens.

When we lost a team member to suicide the impact was huge and was a stark reminder that businesses need to be prepared. Here's what you can do:

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Why is it important for businesses to address the issue of suicide?

For most businesses their people are their most important asset so it makes sense for employers to take an interest in the health and wellbeing of their people. However the conversation must go beyond a person’s outward, physical health and include mental health and wellbeing.

Mental health is being discussed more openly in workplaces, but figures from Mental Health First Aid show that suicide is still the biggest killer of men under 50.  

Improving the dialogue around mental health and making it a more commonplace conversation will help to remove the stigma around mental health conditions, making easier to for people to seek help and for their colleagues to support.

It is a difficult subject for people to discuss – what’s the best and most sensitive way to spread the message? How can HR professionals help?

We recognise the importance of mental as well as physical health, and we focus on creating an environment which encourages people to look after both their mental and physical health. Part of our approach is a commitment to starting the conversation with people and asking them if they are OK.

Most people spend so much time in the workplace but have lost the ability to connect. We equip our line managers to be able to have difficult and supportive conversations with the people they are responsible for. These sorts of toolkits provide valuable knowhow which give people the confidence to broach rather sensitive topics.   

What impact does losing someone from your team have personally, and on the rest of the organisation?

A member of our team took his life last year. It had, and continues to have a huge impact on us and I feel I have a responsibility to address the stigma about talking about suicide.

The team was hit hard. His immediate team and manager felt immense guilt and we all asked ourselves if we should have seen this coming, done more, anything. They were a close team and close teams act as a family at work. You feel personally responsible. We all questioned things – was there something we should have noticed or was out of the ordinary? It caused a huge period of personal reflection and mourning.

How can you help support people at such a difficult time?

In the immediate aftermath, we provided crisis management support straightaway. We had onsite counsellors who were fantastic. They could talk to people one on one, and also held some group sessions where the team could talk about it together; it gave them an essential outlet to express their feelings.

As a leader, I was also responsible for liaising with his family, returning his personal belongings and ensuring that his loved ones received his life assurance payout. 

We also made some practical changes - the team didn’t want to come into work and see their friend's empty desk so we moved where the team sat in the office.

There was a workload impact, of course, but we had to be careful: everyone worked together and was incredibly collaborative but they also needed time to grieve and deal with issues themselves. And in the weeks and months afterwards unexpected things would crop up and jar emotionally - e.g. you’d send something to a distribution list and get his auto-response back.

Longer-term, we haven’t had to make significant organisational changes because we are fortunate that we already have access to the resources we need, such as having counsellors onsite.

To other businesses I’d say that having plans in place is essential. Having access to counsellors was crucial for us – access to these through an EAP is an on-demand service so you don’t pay in advance, but having it there in the worst-case scenario will be invaluable. You need to think about the practical aftermath of someone dying by suicide. Who speaks to the family? How do you support the team? How do you process things like system updates, payroll, pensions? How do you notify their clients? You don’t think about the detail until it happens.

What should businesses who perhaps might not be as advanced in the area of mental wellbeing do? Where is a good place to start?

Don’t underestimate the emotional toll it will take on you and your team, both immediately and ongoing. People genuinely need time to grieve.

As mentioned above, it’s important people feel they can connect at work, and colleagues are able to have difficult and supportive conversations with the people they work with.

On 10th May COVER magazine, in association with Bupa, is hosting a live webinar titled Improving health and wellbeing in the workplace - to register please click here. The BITC Suicide Postvention Toolkit can be downloaded for free at http://wellbeing.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/toolkit...

Patrick Watt is corporate director at Bupa UK.

This article was provided by Bupa UK.

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