In this presentation, elements characterizing the difficulty in managing suicidal patients are discussed. The perspective described travels along two lines: on the one hand, the experience represented by the establishment of a clinic specifically dedicated to suicidal patients (the Life Promotion Clinic at Griffith University), the difficulties in recruiting its operators, and the need for constant supervision and support to the clinic's professional operators; on the other hand, the experience of four decades spent on a clinical activity largely dedicated to the treatment of suicidal subjects, ‘naturally’ attracted by the particular specialisation of the author. The establishment of a Suicidology Unit at the University of Padua in 1992 and the building up of a register of suicidal behaviours within a collaborative program of the European World Health Organization has acted as a catalyst for patients but also as a training station of residents in psychiatry and psychologists in training. This has given us multiple opportunities to observe the difficulties encountered by the operators in dealing with suicidal patients, as well as several cases of suicide happening in patients. In some cases, these events produced profound suffering on the part of the professionals too and in a couple of said cases even the cessation of the professional activity of two psychiatrists. This would seem to indicate that despite support and supervision, some tragedies leave such a strong mark on an individual's career or professional development that they lose their desire to continue in their chosen profession. After all, the author of this presentation saw his career marked at its very beginning from the suicide of a young fellow resident in the first year of psychiatry, therefore, a turning point, an experience capable of radically modifying an itinerary that would otherwise have had other professional outlets. Case histories and suggestions for the difficult art of supporting acute suicidal crises will be presented.