Strategies for Hospitals to Reduce the Incidence of Suicide
Published: Sep 19, 2012
Last week StayAlert reviewed the updated National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (National Strategy), which offers guidance to health care professionals for reducing the incidence of suicide. A major theme in the National Strategy is that everyone has a role in preventing suicides. According to the report, clinical and community-based programs and services play a key role in promoting wellness, building resilience, and preventing suicidal behaviors among various groups. Clinical preventive services, including suicide assessment and preventive screening by primary care and other health care providers, are crucial to assessing suicide risk and connecting individuals at risk for suicide to available clinical services and other sources of care.
One way hospitals can potentially impact the incidence of suicide is by implementing suicide prevention programs on non-psychiatric units such as the Emergency Department and medical surgical units. These areas pose a risk because the staff are not necessarily trained to perform suicide risk assessments or to interact with suicidal individuals and also because the environment itself is not designed in a manner that considers suicide prevention. The need for training and education programs about suicide prevention programs on non-psychiatric units is of such importance that, in 2010, The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert on the topic.
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