Patients committing suicide while in a staffed round, the clock care context often report the kind of sentinel occurrences. Detecting patients at risk either when under care or after being discharged makes it a significant step in protecting individuals at the risk of committing suicide. The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG), Goal15, calls for the psychiatric unit in hospitals or the psychiatric hospital to perform risk assessments to get rid of the physical environment features that patients could use to attempt suicide. The hospital is supposed to take all the necessary measures to minimize risks such as removing door hinges, hooks, and anchoring points that can be used for hanging. This mini-research paper is structured to summarize and tie together all the four articles about goal 15 of the NPSG and offer the annotated bibliography for each article.
Articles Summary and Connection
Brown's article, “Suicide in the Foster Care; A High-Priority Safety Concern,” address the high suicide rate among the youth in the forester unit in the US. The high suicide rate results since most foster care units do not conduct a suicide risk environmental risk assessment; the record shows that more than 37 percent of suicide deaths are reported in the foster care unit b per year. Most of the youth who undergo treatment in foster care units suffer from depression and trauma; therefore, they require special care since they are more likely to commit suicide. On the other hand, the article by Urban et al. “Emergency Department patients with Suicide Risks: Difference in the Care by Acute Alcohol Use,” compares patients at high suicide risks in the emergency department. According to the article, among the people at suicide risk, 19% had reported alcohol intoxication, while 43 percent did not. Individuals with alcohol intoxication are significantly less likely to be evaluated by psychiatrists in the ED than without use after a suicide plan, age adjustment, recent self-harm, suicide ideation, and ED disposition. Even though alcohol use amplifies the likelihood of suicide, ED patients with alcohol intoxication seem to get less comprehensive suicide risk assessment.
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The article by Lindh et al., “Predicting Suicide: A Comparison between Clinical Suicide Risk Assessment and Suicide Intent Scale,” compares the suicide intent scale with the predictive accuracy for assessments of risks to predict suicide in the first years of an episode of harm without and with suicide intent. The authors state that assessing suicide is still under discussion with an argument for both clinical and actuarial approaches. Similarly, the article “Personality Suicide Ideation and the Reasons for Living among Older Adults” by Segal et al., investigates the relationship between the suicide ideation, personality traits, various features of personality disorder (PD), and protective factors occurring against the rates of suicide among the people dwelling older disease. The older adults recorded a higher suicide care rate in the United States than the general population; this is related to the axis a clinical disorder among the old adults.
Generally, all four articles address the high rates of suicide and how they can be reduced. Currently, suicide rates are very high, and there is a need to reduce these rates. According to the articles, hospitals are responsible for conducting suicide risk assessments for patients. The high suicide rate is due to issues like depression, alcoholism, personality disorders, and exposure to trauma. Suicide is distributed across all ages from the elderly. Hospitals can play an important part in reducing suicide rates. According to the authors, performing risk assessments by the hospitals can greatly contribute to a reduction in suicide rates. This argument is particularly true because hospitals and healthcare providers are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that patients are safe. Screening them to assess risks of psychological disorders could go a long way in ensuring that suicides, most of which result from psychological disorders, do not occur. Hospitals and care providers should take the initiative in assessing patients of mental challenges to ensure that issues like suicide are reduced.
Annotated bibliography
Brown, L. A. (2020). Suicide in foster care: A high-priority safety concern. Perspectives on Psychological Science , 15 (3), 665-668. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619895076
The article addresses the high suicide rate among the youths in the foster care unit in the US, which occurs since most of these units do not perform a suicide risk assessment to the youths . The youths in the foster care facilities record 37.5 suicide deaths per 10,000 individuals per year, which is low compared to the general population, which has recorded 8.3 deaths per 10,000 persons. Brown (2020) outlines the assumption that although the factors contributing to suicide risk among young people in foster care are unclear, some likely contributors include trauma exposure, reduced social support, depression, and maltreatment. The transition into foster care may also result in the high-suicide risk among youths. Most of the foster care facilities lack proper strategies for universal screening. The first step of the Universal suicide screening implementation is referring the adolescents to cognitive health services. The methods that can be used to treat youth in the mental health facilities include the use of ripple projects, tuning into teenagers, early interventions foster care, and the incredibility years’ projects.
Urban, C., Arias, S. A., Segal, D. L., Camargo Jr, C. A., Boudreaux, E. D., Miller, I., & Betz, M. (2020). Emergency Department patients with suicide risk: Differences in care by acute alcohol use. General Hospitality Psychiatry , 63 , 83-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2018.09.010
The article compares patients at risk of suicide in the emergency department. The cases of self-inflicted injury and attempted suicide have been more than two folds over the recent past decades as the rose from 244,000 in 1993 to 1996 to 538,000 for the years between 2005 to 2008. The patient with disorders associated with substance use has increased risks linked to suicidal thoughts, suicide, and suicide attempts. The article indicates that people with alcohol abuse-linked illnesses are 4.8 to 6.8-fold higher risks of suicidal attempt compared to the ones with no form of substance use-related disorder. The emergency department offers the intervention opportunity with people at high suicide risks. Alcohol intoxication often complicates the clinical assessment for risks by impairing an individual's response to question and judgment.
Lindh, Å. U., Beckman, K., Carlborg, A., Waern, M., SalanderRenberg, E., Dahlin, M., &Runeson, B. (2020). Predicting suicide: A comparison between clinical suicide risk assessment and the suicide intent scale. Journal of Affective Disorders , 263 , 445-449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.131
The article compares the suicide intent scale with predictive accuracy for risk assessment to predict suicide within the first years of an episode of harm without and with suicide intent. It states that assessing suicide is still under discussion with an argument for both clinical and actuarial approaches considered. The suicide intent scale covers 15 items concerning recent suicidal attempts in terms of risk of planning, being found, wishing to die from the attempt, and perceived lengthy methods. The authors also determine if the accuracy is improved by combining the result of two evaluation methods. The authors indicate the sensitivity and specificity is enhanced if the two methods are put together. Currently, proper actions should be taken to reduce suicide risks.
Segal, D. L., Marty, M. A., Meyer, W. J., & Coolidge, F. L. (2012). Personality, suicidal ideation, and reasons for living among older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences , 67B (2), 159-166. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbr080
This article examines the correlation between suicide ideation, personality traits, diverse features of personality disorder (PD), and protective factors occurring against the rates of suicide among the people dwelling older disease. The suicidal cases among the older adults in the US are a broad problem since the adults above sixty-five years record a higher suicide death rate than the general population. There exists a relationship between suicide and axis I clinical disorder among elderly people. The personality disorders play a significant deleterious role in interpersonal and psychological functioning across different people in adulthood and then their later lives. The negative psychological impact of personality disorder, evaluation of personality disorders, and personality disorders features may be significant in the elder life suicide-related research. Therefore, the five-factor model for exploring the association between the consciousness personality, agreeableness personality, openness to experience personality, extraversion personality, and neuroticism personality shows their different dimensions among the elderly.
Conclusion
Conclusively, suicide is at epidemic proportions in the US. Fortunately, it is a preventable public health issue; nurses are at the front-line to intervene and prevent suicide cases, especially for patients while in a staffed. Assessing suicide risk is a very demanding task, particularly within the mental health outpatient and elderly care. Moreover, young people in the foster facilities are most likely to attempt suicide due to trauma exposure, reduced social support, depression, and maltreatment. Nurses' awareness and experience of dealing with questions concerning suicide risk can create awareness and boost the ethical standpoints associated with assessing suicide risk.
References
Brown, L. A. (2020). Suicide in foster care: A high-priority safety concern. Perspectives on Psychological Science , 15 (3), 665-668. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619895076
Lindh, Å. U., Beckman, K., Carlborg, A., Waern, M., SalanderRenberg, E., Dahlin, M., &Runeson, B. (2020). Predicting suicide: A comparison between clinical suicide risk assessment and the suicide intent scale. Journal of Affective Disorders , 263 , 445-449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.131
Segal, D. L., Marty, M. A., Meyer, W. J., & Coolidge, F. L. (2012). Personality, suicidal ideation, and reasons for living among older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences , 67B (2), 159-166. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbr080
Urban, C., Arias, S. A., Segal, D. L., Camargo Jr, C. A., Boudreaux, E. D., Miller, I., & Betz, M. (2020). Emergency Department patients with suicide risk: Differences in care by acute alcohol use. General Hospitality Psychiatry , 63 , 83-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2018.09.010
