Vitamodo School · Bundle 2: Suicide Recognition & Prevention · Brochure 9 of 10 · Version 1.0
Andris Saulitis, MD
If you are yourself currently considering suicide, this brochure is not the right place to start. Please reach out to a crisis line or emergency service now.
Latvia: 116123
European Union: 112
United States: 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline)
United Kingdom: 116 123 (Samaritans)
For other countries: findahelpline.com
For those who: work alongside someone they have begun to worry about — as a colleague, a manager, an HR professional, a team member — and want to know how to act within the constraints of professional relationship.
Not for those who: are themselves at risk — see the crisis lines above and reach out before reading further.
What this is — the clinical reality
This brochure is for the colleague, the manager, the HR professional, or anyone who works alongside someone whom they have begun to worry about. Workplace contexts often show warning signs before family contexts do — and for some at-risk people, the workplace is the only daily contact with people who could notice. Knowing how to read what the workplace sees, and knowing what to do about it within the constraints of professional relationship, is the most important thing a colleague in your position can carry.
Three things you need to know.
The first is that the workplace often sees what families do not. The pattern at home is private and slow-changing; the pattern at work is visible and structured. Missed deadlines. Decreased work quality. Increased sick days. Withdrawal from team interactions. Eating alone when previously eating with the team. Logging in at three in the morning. Leaving meetings without explanation. Returning red-eyed from breaks. These signals show up in the structured rhythm of work and are often more recognisable in this context than the family equivalents. The workplace is, in this sense, one of the most sensitive instruments for early detection — provided someone is willing to read the instrument.
The second is that the default workplace response to performance changes is the wrong response. The standard managerial reflex — escalating performance management, formal warnings, increased oversight — applied to a colleague in clinical crisis often accelerates the risk rather than mitigating it. Performance management treats the symptom (the work product) without addressing the cause (the underlying state). For many people, the fear of losing the job becomes itself a precipitating event. The clinical instruction is to address the person before addressing the performance; the performance question, if relevant, comes after the person has been engaged with.