My Perceptions About And Prior Experience With Depression, Grief And Suicide

Suicide does not generally come without warning. Almost always, persons considering it show symptoms or provide clues to their intent. It is important, however, for crisis workers to know how to read these and be able to distinguish between myth and reality. (Kanel, 2003, p. 76)

I finally started my first year of college at Miami Dade College in January 2014. During my adaptation to the new educational system, my Abnormal Psychology class professor mentioned how important it would be to participate in an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. I consider this to be very useful in today’s society where many individuals suffer from depression.

Healthy People 2020 is a government site that identifies health concerns based on statistics observed and collected over a ten-year period. Mental Health and Mental Disorders is one of the many health concerns or topics listed on their website and has been further subcategorized into objectives and goals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2015). The first objective listed under this topic states “reduce the suicide rate” (HHS, 2015). The goal of this objective is to “reduce the suicide rate by ten percent” (HHS, 2015). Suicide is prevalent among varying age groups, ethnicities, and genders (HHS, 2012). It is an increasing problem prompting Healthy People 2020 to label it as a Leading Health Indicator or an extremely important issue (HHS, 2015). To meet their goal, Healthy People 2020 partnered with the U. S. Surgeon General and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP) to create a plan that can be utilized throughout the nation. Their plan focuses on removing the stigma associated with mental health and mental health disorders while simultaneously building supportive communities with increased access to care, creating a standardized model promoting the collaboration of health care professionals in order to increase identification and data collection of high-risk patients and provide continuity of care, and ensuring the education and the adequacy of patient support systems.

An increase in the global statistic of suicide rates has sparked a worldwide concern in mental health where it is put

This week clinical I felt better prepared than I did with my first week. I was able to focus a lot more on interpersonal skills and develop therapeutic relationship with my patients. In terms of Mental Status Examination (MSE), this assessment provided me with a helpful base of information from which to observe changes, progress, and monitor risks. Especially, suicide risk assessment is a gateway to patient treatment and management. The purpose of suicide risk assessment is to identify treatable and modifiable risks and protective factors that inform the patient’s treatment and safety management requirements. I got insight into how important it is to document suicide risk assessments with sufficient information. Documentation of suicide risk assessments facilitates continuity of care and promotes communication between staff members across changing shifts. It is easy for suicidal patients to “fall through the cracks” of a busy psychiatric unit that has rapid patient turnover of admissions and discharges, and mostly during shift change. Asking question such as “What is your view of the future?” or “Do you think things will get better or worse?” helped me to elicit important information regarding patients suicidal ideation. Additionally, how my patients expressed their hope about the future assisted me to identify, prioritize, and integrate risk and protective factors into an overall assessment of the patient’s suicide risk and include in MSE.

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

Mental health is a common disorder that anyone in the population can suffer from. Mental health disorders range from anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and even suicidal behaviour(http://rnao.ca/sites/rnao-ca/files/Assessment_and_Care_of_Adults_at_Risk_for_Suicidal_Ideation_and_Behaviour_0.pdf). While mental health disorders occur within then general population, it has been identified that nurses are a group of health professionals that are more prone to mental health problems, including depression and suicide risk (http://www.scielo.br/pdf/reeusp/v49n6/0080-6234-reeusp-49-06-1027.pdf). During my research, I discovered a case of a lead nurse Stuart who was employed at Walsall, United Kingdom. After 15 years of working that that hospital Stuart took his own life. It was believed that his suicide was a consequence of workplace pressures. Many people believed his suicide was due to long hours, lack of support, and negative patient situations (http://www.springerpub.com/w/nursing/blog-a-nurses-suicide/).

Goldsmith, S.K., Pellmar, T.C., Kleinman, A.M., Bunney, W.E. (2002). Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative. (pp 331-374). National Academies Press.

The study focuses on the suicide bereavement and the other forms of bereavement. We will be using the qualitative research methodology in this study. Most of the quantitative studies conducted to find whether the bereavement due to suicide is different than other forms of bereavement found that there is not much of a difference in the bereavement. Simple quantitative measures of grief may not identify some of the thematic or qualitative differences such as the heightened feeling of guilt and preoccupation with the question of why the death has occurred. These are more likely to be observed in qualitatively based research methodology. (Neimeyer & Hogan, 2001)

Mental health is a serious issue in today’s society, affecting millions of people around the world. 20% percent of Canadians of all ages will experience a mental illness in their lifetime, and approximately and 3.2 million teenagers in Canada alone who are at risk of developing depression. (cmha.ca) Suicide is a serious issue as well, being one of the main causes of death in the world. The Canadian Mental Health Association states that every 40 seconds, someone around the world is committing suicide. In Michael Thomas Ford’s novel, Suicide Notes, and Ned Vizzini’s, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, mental health is one of the major themes of the novels and they both showcase the negatives of suicide and how one can cope with their depression. Both

This past week was focused on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention here at school. Out of the three lectures I could go to the Mental Health Student Presentations. The Presentations were divided up among, what I believe, are the most common topics of mental health. The first topic presented was suicide. This is a touchy topic for me because a little less than a year ago a fellow classmate who I just started talking to committed suicide. It was out of the blue because I did not see any of the warning signs talked about in the presentation. A few warning signs talked about was the person would talk about death, give away personal items, threatened to hurt themselves and/or they would have thoughts of self-harm and helplessness. The thing I found

In module three’s lecture on “The Suicide Assessment and Prevention,” Kevin Ellers shared an abundance of important and useful information. Narrowing it down to just one is difficult; however, I think one of the most beneficial resources for my ministry is Ellers’ six suggestions of what to do for effective suicide crisis intervention. He suggests the following:

Three people in my life have completed suicide; my uncle, my mom’s late fiance, and my step brother on my dad’s side, within four years of each other. I’ve witnessed each parental figure in my life become compromised by grief and the inevitable pain accompanying it, and I’ve seen the way depression can plague someone so deeply, even without the ending of suicide. The prevalence and growing numbers of deaths by suicide calls for a revised manner of education on all mental illnesses and the preventative measures one can take to reduce risk. Initially, when I heard of the Suicide Prevention Week Keynote event with Jamie Tworkowski (founder of ‘To Write Love On Her Arms’) I was thrilled. Hosting such an event on a college campus, presenting to a population greatly affected by mental illness, is demonstrative of the steps that should be taken toward raising awareness. Any opportunity for a comprehensive view on mental health and its significance is one to be taken advantage of. However, as the night proceeded, I did take note of several things that would improve the layout of any future events, as well as further deepen an individual’s comprehension of mental illness.

Attending a nursing school is one thread that ties all nurses together. It is there when nurses’ education on mental health begins. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) has set a skill standard that students will be able to demonstrate effective use of harm or risk reducing strategies in their practice (Cronenwett et al., 2008). A phenomenology study on nursing students provided multiple themes that spoke to the pitfalls in mental health nursing education. The themes included: development of fear of speaking to patients after reading their mental status and behavior in the chart, expiernce of uncomfortable feelings when discussing suicidal ideation with patients that were not forthcoming in assessment, and the obligation to meet the suicidal patient’s needs (provide an answer) instead of providing a therapeutic interaction (Scheckel & Nelson, 2014). A cross-sectional design study of nursing student’s attitudes toward suicide prevention revealed half of the students reported felt comfortable assessing suicide risk and had a positive attitude towards working with suicidal patients. At the same time, two-thirds of these students reported they do not believe suicidal patients tell anyone about their ideation and that there is little that can be done on a prevention level

For some teens, striving for perfection has led to harming their own health and wellbeing such as living with depression and suicide. Teenagers today are relying on what they see in ads, T.V., magazines and on the internet for their input on appearances, the way they think not only comes from media sources, but from family and friends.