This report is a critical review of the evidence around the use of no-suicide contracts with mentally ill patients experiencing suicidal ideation. It will ask the question “When treating mentally ill patients, does the use of ‘No- Suicide contracts reduce suicide outcomes?”. Suicide is a global concern and given the current social and economic difficulties current society face, is imperative we continue to consider effective suicide prevention strategies. The literature suggests that no suicide contracts are widely used within this area of practice and are concerned with asking a person to promise not to harm themselves. This report suggests that there is limited evidence to support the effectiveness of no suicide contracts. However where they have been used successfully, it may be the use of the relationship between the clinician and patient which influences the positive outcome. Based on the findings the report recommends that further training around clinical risk management and suicide prevention strategies should be offered to a local team to reduce the use of no suicide contracts in isolation. Bridges transformation model was used to develop and implement an action plan to support change.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the tenth leading cause of death among Americans, accounting for 41,000 deaths in 2013. More than half of all suicides are related to firearms.” Many people have bad thoughts, thoughts so horrific in terms that they want to end their own lives. It’s not just the thoughts that they have, it’s also the different situations they have going on in their lives. In the book: It’s kind of a Funny Story; it expresses the thoughts of one of the characters “I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.” This character is expressing, the intensity of even being awake. They would rather kill themselves than to go on living the horrible life that they may lead. Suicide is always controversial, many people believe that suicide should never be an option. Although for some of us it is, for me it was at one point. Earlier this year, I was on the brink of taking my life. I was so fed up with everything, I was a mess, and i couldn’t take it anymore. The drama with my dad, and his new girlfriend, then all the stress from school and my two jobs. One day, I had enough, I couldn’t take it anymore it was too much. I got out of work, and I had a bad day at work, the customers were so rude, and I felt helpless. I went to the kitchen, and I grabbed a knife,
This source conveys the message of ensuring safe care transitions. Whereby innovative methods are created for suicide attempts when one goes through this transitions which reduce suicide risk and creates a smooth and uninterrupted care transition from one setting to another. It tells us that in order to ensure suicide risk continuity it is important to remove barriers to scheduling a patients follow up appointments. It creates strategies such as a warm hand off, rapid referral, caring contacts and other bridging strategies.
Have you ever been through a tough situation and felt like there was no solution? Many people do and unfortunately many people also solve their solution by ending their life. In fact, every 13 minutes, someone commits suicide in the U.S (http://www.save.org/). Whether your friends or acquaintances, chances are you will know someone who has committed suicide. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. Urban Meyer, current coach of the Ohio State football team, once stated, “Are you going to be the problem or the solution?” An organization known as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) has decided they will be the solution to suicide.
Because I work in an hospital that cares for populations at great risk for substance abuse and untreated mental issues and disorders, I get to see patients that have, or at some time will try to commit suicide, I would like to take this opportunity to learn how to properly assess the community, to help those in need, and to educate their families and friends to look for, and recognize signs that can prevent suicides, toward this end, it is important that I have the necessary knowledge to assimilate the information in this study, in a manner that will provide greater benefit not only to my
During my nursing career, I have worked in many high stress areas (ex; labor and delivery, where not every outcome is great, medical surgical unit, where a lot of people would get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and neurosurgical unit, where I took care of many young individuals affected by glioblasoma multiforme) where my patients were depressed (acute depression) due to their diagnosis and were not sure how to cope with their situation. I did have several suicidal patients, as well. Reflecting on this week’s readings, especially on Meghan’s pp presentations, I must admit that I have to learn more about different depression and suicide tools that are available. That is going to help me not only in my current practice but also in the future.
Joseph Connelly Gazzola used to be a Northeastern University football star. He has since taken his own life, and it has hit everyone he knew very hard.
I am a psychiatric nurse and I have been in the psychiatric field since 2009. I have been mental health technician, licensed practical nurse and lastly I am a registered nurse. I know how every position works and the interactions with patients, but the one thing that does not change in each position is safety. In Behavioral Health the most important intervention is to ensure patient safety and staff safety as well. My main assessment is the psych assessment because to be in my floor the patient has to be medically clear (Hinojosa, Knapp, & Woodworth, 2015). This allows me to concentrate mainly in the patient’s behavioral health. The first question that I do to any patient is if they are having any suicidal or homicidal ideation. If the patient expresses such ideations, the next question should be if there is any
Today, the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. The researchers studied a high-risk group of psychiatric patients after their most recent attempt of suicide and compared them to equally ill patients without a history of suicide attempts. Treatment for patients who have just recently attempted suicide usually are put in a short-term inpatient unit for creating a crisis plan and becoming stabilized. Once these patients are released from the unit they are at a higher risk for repeated attempts or successful suicide. This risk lasts much longer than just a year after their first attempt. To assess the patients in the study the researchers gave them several self-reporting tools to fill out. Some of these tools included the RFLI, CDRISC,
Thesis: While Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, I believe That Suicide is wrong.
Depression affects everyone's life at sometime or another. Depression comes in a wide variety of forms, from mild unhappiness to a chemical imbalance in the mind. There are many different symptoms that reveal a person's problem with depression. If left untreated, depression may continue to develop into a serious illness or even death.
Have you ever known someone who’s committed or tried to commit suicide and thought, “I wish I would’ve done something, said something, to stop it from happening?” I know I would ask myself that question everyday if I hadn’t. A few years ago, a good friend of mine thought her life was so bad she wanted to end it. I did the only thing I could think, and told the nearest teacher. It may sound so childish or stupid, but it worked. Luckily, she’s still alive and well. I’m here to make sure you can make the difference and help a person who might be, or is suicidal. Just think of what would happen if you didn’t try to help.
Someone, somewhere, commits suicide every 18 minutes. You might never be able to tell who it will be, it could be the person sitting right next . Statistics reveal that approximately three million youths, between 12-18, have either thought about or attempted suicide in the past year. More than 1/3, actually succeeded.
Teen suicide is a big problem all around the world, and we try to prevent it by offering help, and medications for whatever these teens are going through. What you may or may not know is that although we do offer help, these teens who are suicidal face negative criticism which sometimes pushes them to do something drastic.
Day to day, teens suffer from peer pressure, problem from home, and stress from academics. Despise their status in the environment, majority of high school students refrain from acknowledging the presence of their reality. The problem in most situations in that students feel shut in, trapped in a never ending misery. How do they cope? What are their ways of dealing? Most students live in denial. Others have friends to confide in. For the devastating part, most students are not as open to these ideas and it leaves them with this alternative: suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause in teens the ages 14 to 19 within rural underserved areas. Suicidal ideation (SI), suicidal thoughts, were surveyed in over 12 high schools and it was found that in the past year, thoughts of (SI) were not shared with peers or even adults in the pursuit of receiving help or support (Pisani, 2012). Because a student spends most of their day at school, it is ideal for schools to provide realistic opportunities and school-based programs to assist with the suicide among the youth. The Surviving the Teens Suicide Prevention and Depression Awareness Program designed four 50 minute session or each high school student. This presented information in regards to factual information about depression, suicidal warning signs, suicidal risk factors and myths associated with suicide (King, 2010). The program provide coping strategies for everyday life, referral sources if feeling suicidal, and how to recognize