Therapist Suicide

Nov 11, 2019

39:15

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Curt and Katie talk about a recent news story related to Dr. Gregory Eells, the Executive Director of the Counseling and Psychological Services at University of Pennsylvania, who died by suicide in September 2019. We talk about how the understanding of risk factors, the changing face of our profession, and calls for self-care are insufficient to address the mental health needs of mental health professionals.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

Therapist death by suicide
The life and work of Dr. Gregory Eells
The risk factors for therapist suicide: our own mental health concerns, highly challenging our work is, the changing work environments, burnout and isolation.
The insufficiency of “self-care” as a solution and what it infers about the mental health professionals who are unable to employ it
The systemic issues leading to poor mental health in the professionals
University counseling centers – the increasing percentage utilization, a look at how access and services have been affected
How new legislation that could improve the situation is still insufficient
A call for early intervention, comprehensive services
How caseloads are impacted by limiting services to clients with the highest level of need
Moral injury in addition to “burnout”
Suggested solutions for individuals and for systems
The importance of assessing capacity and need
What types of things to assess: (culture, demographics, etc.)
Getting creative, while assessing true capacity (time, energy, personnel, space, mental/emotional, sustainability of effort)