For older patients, visits with the doctor are essential to their wellbeing, both physically and socially—especially when many of them have been seeing the same primary care physician for decades. In fact, there is a significant amount of research on the therapeutic effects of the physician-older patient relationship. So what happens when a doctor dies…by suicide?

“Unfortunately, physician suicide is more common than we think—it happens about once a day in the US,” says Dr. Michael F. Myers, a specialist in physician health. “Most often it is a painful, confusing and complicated process that is particularly grueling when the patient has had a very long professional relationship with their doctor.”

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