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Katherine Easton, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
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2025 Themes
February: Workplace & Culture
May: Therapeutic Techniques
August: Palliative Care
November: Caregivers
One of Us: Unpacking the Trauma of Coworker Suicide
By Katherine Easton, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
The experience of colleague suicide is unique, and the individuals involved are touched in a variety of ways. Colleague suicide brings private bereavement into the professional realm. Suicide rates and suicidal ideation among healthcare workers are shown to be greater than the general population. (Luce, 2024). Evidence suggests that exposure to workplace suicide is related to significant trauma and emotional distress. (Cerel, 2022).
Much of the work we do in healthcare revolves around working in small cohesive teams often suggestive of a tight-knit family. The appreciation of a shared professional identity and similar values can solidify these relationships. Historically, healthcare providers have existed in a culture of invulnerability. The ability to be impervious to work-related or personal stressors and to focus squarely on the task of caring for and aiding our patients is highly valued. A strong stigma persists among health care workers who exhibit signs of emotional distress and disclosing personal issues in the workplace is mostly frowned upon.
Workplace mental health has now moved to the forefront of challenges in most healthcare institutions. The pandemic created an aftershock of a professional identitycrisis and fostered an opportunity to pause and reflect on how to maintain a healthier balance between work and personal life. Moving past the pandemic, there continues to be a desire to renegotiate what role work plays in our lives. For some, the daily struggle of showing up to care for patients becomes an overwhelming and consuming task. Anxiety, depression, and the vicarious trauma we experience in working with the sick and dying can create a perfect storm of emotional distress. Layered with personal crises such as family conflict, financial stressors, substance use and social isolation the result often emerges as increased sick time, medical leave, absenteeism, resignation, and termination. Many institutions are beginning to recognize that traditional models of support for employees, which have historically focused on the individual, have been compelled to reevaluate the culture of their organizations, the well-being of staff, and the supports necessary to maintain a mentally healthy workforce.
Our coworker was never late for work. The reports of personal crises, social isolation, and family estrangement cast a shadow of concern over the well-being of our coworker that morning. The details of how or why a coworker commits suicide becomes less important as we are forced to acknowledge that we are all vulnerable. There comes a point in our understanding that we must turn toward each other without judgment and look to our institutions to have the appropriate mental health supports in place to respond.
Oncology social workers have traditionally focused on assessing the risk of suicide in our patients, but never has the need been squarely on those working alongside of us. As oncology social work professionals, we are often seen as a source of emotional support for our medical teams but training in workplace suicide has not historically been in our arena of expertise or training. The ability to have emotional bandwidth to serve in this role should be a matter of professional and personal choice.
A review of the literature in how best to communicate a workplace suicide summarizes that there is often a lack of a clear strategy. As our team assembled that morning, we began the task of how best to communicate this tragic news. Decisions surrounding clinic operations and patient care needed to be carefully considered. We evaluated language and scripting for a timely and sensitive response along with avoiding details to protect privacy. Leadership was available and remained on-site. We chose to continue operations that day while supporting staff who felt the need to return home. At the end of that difficult day, we concluded that we would face the loss in our own unique way and acknowledged that the next challenge would be how best to grieve collectively.
Every suicide impacts 80-100 other people. Suicide bereavement is a risk factor for suicide. (Hillary Causer, 2022) Coworker suicide exposes the emotional vulnerability of individuals to those they work alongside. A decision to conduct a debrief on what transpired that day was the beginning of our grief process. Supported by a trained crisis team, they were available to facilitate and navigate this painful event. We soon recognized that the most fundamental element of our grief was that it was allowed to be safely brought out into the open which fostered unity in the loss, exploring emotions such as shock, sadness, and disbelief. We were in uncharted waters. We had the usual questions about what had happened, what signs we may have missed, and reflected on how we could memorialize our beloved coworker. In the following weeks and months, we continued to heal with the love and support of each other. It remains a long and often arduous process.
Leaders should be cautioned around promoting an atmosphere of having to “carry on” following the death of an employee. The ability of an organization to respond in an effective manner will have a lasting impact on the well-being of the staff left to adjust.
The recognition that staff need space and time to heal and to encourage time away from the workplace to receive mental health care is essential in the aftermath of coworker suicide. The culture of institutions that fail to recognize the risk of minimizing the mental health of their employees will see a myriad of problems in the future. Promoting a culture that recognizes the intrinsic distress experienced by those caring for patients in healthcare settings is the first step in acknowledging change will be necessary.
Expanding resources such as flex time, job-sharing, time off for well-being, health promotion programs, fostering social connection, on-site mental health supports, and hiring staff trained in workplace trauma are essential and will fundamentally reflect the value the institution holds for their employees.
Cerel, R. A. (2022). Occupational Suicide Exposure and Impact on Mental Health: Examining Differences Across Helping Professions. Journal of Death and Dying, 4.
Hillary Causer, J. S.-G. (2022). The Impact of Colleague Suicide and the Current State of Postvention Guidance for Affected Co-workers: A Critical Integrative Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19.
Luce, A. (2024). Quite Simply they don’t communicate: a case study of a National Health Service response to staff suicide. Journal of Medical Humanities, 8.
About the Author

Katherine Easton, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
Oncology Social WorkerKnight Cancer Institute; Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland, Oregon
easton@ohsu.edu
Katherine Easton, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, is an oncology social worker at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. She provides psychosocial oncology services to patients and families at the Community Hematol...
Read Full Author Bio

Katherine Easton, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
Oncology Social WorkerKnight Cancer Institute; Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland, Oregon
easton@ohsu.edu
Katherine Easton, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, is an oncology social worker at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. She provides psychosocial oncology services to patients and families at the Community Hematology Oncology clinic for OHSU at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland. Katherine has been an oncology social worker for seventeen years and has worked in multiple care settings including medical and radiation oncology, surgical oncology and in the acute setting. Her experience also includes professional trainings and journal publications. After nearly twenty years of practice in Atlanta, she now calls the Pacific Northwest her home.
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