Suicide: who to blame? (A personal view)

Background: When suicide (inevitably) occurs, clinicians who have attempted to assist the deceased are often blamed.

Aim: To develop and present concepts to help in the blaming process.

Conclusion: Four types of triggers are described: severe mental disorder, mild-moderate mental disorder, non-mental disorder triggers with which non-clinician may be helpful, and non-mental disorder triggers with which non-clinicians can offer little. An analogy is drawn with murder. People with severe mental disorders who kill themselves may not be responsible for their actions, and clinicians may be responsible for patient protection. However, for mild-moderate mental disorder the patient is responsible for his/her actions, and clinicians are neither responsible nor blameworthy. The same applies to non-mental disorder trigger events.