In conversation with Sangeeta Mahajan: Championing suicide prevention and bereavement support

In autumn 2014, Sangeeta’s 20-year-old son, Saagar, tragically took his own life just ten weeks after being diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Seeking comfort and a way to process her grief, Sangeeta began writing a blog, Kids Are Gifts, which she continues to update today.

Driven by her personal tragedy, Sangeeta began exploring the gaps in Saagar’s care. This led to her Churchill Fellowship in 2019. She travelled to the USA and Australia and authored a report entitled ‘Bridging the Gaps in Suicide Prevention’.

Now, five years on, we spoke to Sangeeta to discover how the Fellowship affected her personally and how the learning from it is making a difference today.

Exploring suicide prevention

When Sangeeta undertook her Fellowship, she was a Consultant Anaesthetist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, in London. She has now taken early retirement and moved to rural South India, where she lives with her husband.

She said: “Suicide is one of the biggest killers of young people in the UK. This fact should be known to each and every person and yet, despite being a doctor, I only found this out after the tragic death of my son, Saagar. Thousands of people are affected by suicide and suicidal thoughts each year and very few receive the support they need in an appropriate and timely way.”

Sangeeta ultimately identified 11 gaps in the UK for suicide prevention.

“One area I looked into was how we interact with families of vulnerable young people. We are quick to send people home from a psychiatric setting, but do we equip the families with adequate information and resources to enable and empower them to do a good job? Do we educate them to recognise a crisis? We do not.”

Sangeeta also explored the discharge process. She found that handover of care of vulnerable people to GPs was unsafe. There was a lack of proper follow up which compromised the safety and wellbeing of many patients.

Lack of training for doctors in suicide prevention, stigma around suicide in the medical community, minorities being treated differently… all these factors helped inform the direction of Sangeeta’s Fellowship.

“The medical profession doesn’t talk about suicide prevention, nor is there any suicide prevention training, even though those in the profession are themselves at a higher risk of suicide.”

In 2019, Sangeeta began her Fellowship, visiting New Hampshire in the US to observe community programmes being carried out by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where safety planning was a big part of care in the community.

Back in the UK, Sangeeta began speaking extensively about safety planning and suicide prevention, at medical conferences, safeguarding, social care and police gatherings, as well as at Saagar’s school and university. An award-winning educational film she made explores her experience, and delivers the powerful message that suicide is everyone’s business.

Long-term impact of Sangeeta’s Fellowship

The knowledge gained from Sangeeta’s Fellowship has had a lasting impact.

She played a key role in contributing to the free online training offered by the Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA), which seeks to empower, educate, and equip individuals and organisations in raising awareness about suicide and preventing it.

Although her goal of making suicide prevention training mandatory across the NHS has yet to be realised nationwide, she has successfully implemented it within her own Trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’.

“I was contacted only recently by a former colleague, who had gone through the ZSA training. He hadn’t been aware of my loss but had found out because of the training. Bit by bit, we are making a difference.”

Drawing on her Fellowship experience, Sangeeta and her husband set up an online peer support group, Circle of Remembrance, for parents who have lost a child. Inspired by Intentional Peer Support , this international group gives people the opportunity to find connection, understanding and friendships.

For eight years, Sangeeta was a trustee of Papyrus, the leading charity for prevention of young suicides. Her Fellowship contributed to the establishment of a digital safety plan for the callers to Hopeline.

Although Sangeeta is no longer working in the profession, she remains deeply passionate about doctors' self-care and emphasises the critical importance of being aware of human vulnerabilities – not only for patients but also for themselves and their colleagues.

In the end, the three things that make for a safe society are connection, compassion and a sense of community.

“Culturally, it will take years to change attitudes in the medical profession, but at least we have made a start, and I am proud of that. My report will be available forever, for people who are interested in this field. I feel I have left an imprint there.”