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The crushing toll on bystanders who unwittingly witness someone taking their own life has been revealed by a critical incident consultant, who says his attendance of public suicide incidents has increased significantly in recent weeks.

Dimitrios Papalexis was called to Westfield Parramatta to support management and staff who witnessed the death of a woman at the centre on October 14.

The death was sadly the latest in a spate of mental health related deaths to unfold in public spaces recently, with Mr Papalexis noting a prominent increase in similar cases.

“The last month I’ve noticed a big increase in (suicides),” Mr Papalexis told news.com.au, saying he had attended multiple shopping centre deaths.

“It’s curious to me – why there is so much of this happening.”

He would typically attend between two and three incidents each week to support witnesses who had viewed someone take their life.

When Mr Papalexis arrives at the scene, he has to be prepared to face almost anything.

“It’s quite an intense experience. Because you don’t know what you’re going to face or what state the people will be in,” he said.

“Usually people will be in shock and traumatised, including the management, and they will be trying to do their best to support the staff.”

Those counselled by Mr Papalexis were often dealing with a mixture of emotions, he recalled.

“There is a lot of intense emotion, there is confusion, and people have questions that can’t be answered,” he said.

“There’s sadness, anger, confusion, and feeling numb.”

Mr Papalexis said witnessing a death or traumatic incident could often serve as a trigger for people and brought to the surface other underlying issues.

“What happens with critical incidents is they bring up other stuff like past grief. People are grieving for the person, even if they don’t know it, and also grieving for family members they lost or recent losses, so it comes back to people,” he said.

He added there was “definitely an issue” surrounding the volume of deaths unfolding at shopping malls, which has sparked strong calls for fall arrest safety netting to be installed.

Mr Papalexis frequented a variety of companies and organisations, including schools, to help people mentally cope with traumatic circumstances.

“People who deal with mental health issues or have an accident, it can happen to anyone and happen anywhere,” he said.

“I’ve been to just about every place people work. Anything from accidents, violence, suicides, and anything else that might affect employees’ mental wellbeing.”

Typically towards the end of the year, Mr Papalexis’ help was needed more, with the stress of the previous 12 months compounding with work, family and lifestyle pressures.

“It seems like people are breaking down and their mental health is getting worse,” he said.

“All the accumulated effects of Covid lockdowns, uncertainty and the quality of life, it ends up affecting people.

“I’ve noticed more suicide attempts and more health issues generally, like heart attacks. Healthy people are dying unexpectedly.”

The best indicator of positive outcomes for people who experienced something traumatic while at work was a warm and supportive employment culture, Mr Papalexis said.

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“It makes such a difference when people have a supportive workplace and colleagues they can lean on and trust,” he said.

“I see that all the time, it makes a difference.”

Keep the conversation going, email brooke.rolfe@news.com.au

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