Sir, the awareness of the importance of our mental health within the dental profession has increased recently, which is amazing and vital but this alone is not enough. We know dentistry is a stressful career and a challenging university course, and our mental health can be significantly affected. Also, being healthcare professionals, we have a duty of care to patients who could have a range of mental health diagnoses or who could present in a crisis - for example having suicidal thoughts.
This leads to the question: why aren't we undertaking regular mental health and suicide training? Mental Health First Aid courses are available which should be compulsory to complete alongside physical first aid and medical emergencies training.1Zero Suicide Alliance offers a free 20-minute training course on suicide awareness which highlights three key aspects: SEEing the signs of suicide; SAYing, speaking about suicide and whether someone has suicidal thoughts; and SIGNPOSTing people to the correct services, eg GP, Samaritans.2
If a colleague or patient is struggling with their mental health, we need to talk openly about suicide and whether they are having or have had suicidal thoughts. This can be difficult to do but is imperative to their safety and wellbeing. It does not 'put the idea into their head', but instead protects them and allows people to tell you how they feel.3
We need to urgently integrate this training into both the student curriculum and professional CPD cycles. Not only mental health training, but also thorough interactive equality and diversity training (eg by E&D UK),4 since discrimination has a huge impact on mental health and is so prevalent in our society.
As we normalise talking about suicide, we should be using the correct terminology. For example, 'committed suicide' is a term that should be avoided as it implies it is a crime and adds to the stigma. Instead we can say 'died by suicide' or 'took their own life'.5
We must also question: why is there a barrier to dental professionals seeking help for their mental health? More attention is needed on mental health within the profession to save lives. If you need someone to talk to or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call Samaritans on 116 123, who are available 24/7.
References
MHFA England. Mental health training online and face to face. 2020. Available at: https://mhfaengland.org/ (accessed October 2020).
Zero Suicide Alliance. ZSA Training. 2020. Available at: https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/training (accessed October 2020).
Samaritans. Supporting someone with suicidal thoughts. 2020. Available at: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/if-youre-worried-about-someone-else/supporting-someone-suicidal-thoughts/ (accessed October 2020).
Equality and Diversity UK. Equality and Diversity: Training. Resources. Network. 2020. Available at https://www.equalityanddiversity.co.uk/ (accessed October 2020).
Samaritans. How to talk about suicide safely online. 2020. Available at: https://www.samaritans.org/about-samaritans/research-policy/internet-suicide/how-talk-about-suicide-safely-online/ (accessed October 2020).
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Benson, K. Mental health training. Br Dent J 229, 701 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-2463-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-2463-0
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