The Increase of Chemical Suicide in United States and Its Effect on First Responders

"More people in the general population die from suicide than homicide in North America. There are almost 11 suicide deaths each year for every 100,000 people living in the United States, and for every suicide, there are between 8 and 25 attempts" (Brent 4203). Based on this research, the great effect of suicide is displayed. According to dictionary.com, suicide can be defined as "the intentional taking of one's own life." Suicide is a major issue for all people, but it most obviously affects those ranging from ten to twenty-four. People need to understand the tremendous ramifications caused from suicide everyday; when people take their lives, others lose their loved ones. Suicide, one of the leading causes of death of numerous people each day, has reached a crisis point for adolescents and young adults, and it needs to be prevented.

Research and psychological studies show that suicidal behavior stems from at least one or more mental disorders that are treatable. Individuals with suicidal behaviors often feel hopeless which contributes to these behaviors and can lead to suicide attempts or succession. Recognizing these behaviors can save someone’s life, being compassionate, empathetic, and proactive can greatly reduce an individual’s suicide behavior. The goal is to recognize these behaviors and get help for these individuals quickly.

Overall the suicide rate is extremely high. It is not the most sought after death, but it is the most efficient. I have known many people over my short 16 years of life who have wanted to kill themselves. I’ve been in the position to end my life many times, had best friends die, and watched them die. It is a horrible tragedy; suicide is a sorrowful disaster that needs to be addressed.

There is a significant health issue facing the public as well as law enforcement every day, suicide. The numbers surrounding suicide are shocking effects people of all backgrounds. In the year 2010 more than 38,000 adults committed suicide. Then in 2011 around 1 million adults admitted to attempting suicide, while 8 million had serious suicidal thoughts. Law Enforcement officers are at an even higher risk then most due to experiencing such a large number of risk factors. These factors include but are not limited to poor physical health, access to fire arms, domestic abuse, substance abuse, exposure to violence and suicide; depression, anxiety and other mental diseases. These factors lead to an above average number of officer suicides every

The Center for Disease Control maintains a national database of occupation related mortality. Known as the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS), this database maintains the death certificate data from 28 states, greatly limiting the overall picture of the United States as a whole. The current Occupational Health and Safety and NOMS databases do not specifically segregate first responder job classes, yet lumps them into occupational codes that encompass occupations that are not relevant to first responders. Statistical data from NOMS (1994-1998) showed that police suicides were four times greater than firefighters and police suicides dwarfed homicides 2.36 times (Violanti, 2010). There are significant limitations in research related to first responder suicide rates as the

Most persons who later attempt suicide have given some indication of being at risk, of having ideation or intent related to suicide. The suicide rate among physicians and nurses is higher than in the general population; their special knowledge of pharmacology and physiology can make attempts more likely to be lethal. Most people who complete suicide have made at least one previous attempt, and a history of prior attempts is one of the strongest predictors of future risk. Some attempts may appear unlikely to have succeeded from the outset, because the means was one of low lethality (e.g., choking oneself with socks wrapped around the neck) or because circumstances would have led to

Facts: The state of Washington passed a law that made it a crime to assist in a suicide that takes place within the state. The crime is listed as “promoting a suicide attempt” and is classified as a felony offense. In order for a person to be convicted of this crime it has to be proven that the defendant knowingly caused or aided another person in an attempt to commit suicide. In January 1994 Dr. Glucksberg along with four other doctors, three terminally ill patients who died before the case reached the

The suicidal signs are easy to identify, and if you identify them early enough you could save a person’s live that could be in danger.

Suicide has historically been and continues to be a significant issue in the United States, for civilians as well as active duty military service members and veterans. While statistics surrounding suicide appear to be just numbers on a page, I personally implore the reader of the following paper to never lose sight of the fact that those numbers represent real people. Each one of those people, be they civilian or military, represent a loss of a father or a mother, a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, a best friend, a comrade, …a person whose life, and that life’s potential, is now forever lost. The following statistics on suicide rates in the United States do not differentiate if the individual was a civilian, an active duty

UMass Lowell EMS currently carries five different types of medication on their trucks: Aspirin, Narcan, Glucose, Epinephrine, and Albuterol. Technically, oxygen is listed as a Basic Life Support (BLS) medication, but is not listed as it is readily available in the air. EMT-Basics (EMT-Bs) were able to use activated charcoal for ingestion poisonings, but are currently no longer legally allowed to do so. Activated charcoal was used to treat many types of ingestion poisonings such as phenobarbital and carbamazepine. But, it is not effective for a number of poisonings including: strong acids or bases, iron, lithium, arsenic,

Suicide rate is a grow problem in the United States according to the American foundation for suicide prevention more than 41,149 suicides were reported in 2013. The highest rate of suicides is committed by adults between age 45-64 and this is especially true amongst the elderly. Older adults are inflected with a terminal disease, loneness and depression and because of this they are committing suicide at a higher rate. Suicide amongst the men is steadily higher than women, in 2013, 77.9% were male and 22.1% were female. Men success rate for suicide is much higher, because their attempt is more lethal, for example, men are more than likely to shot themselves, whereas women are more likely to use poisons to end their life. Suicide Rate committed race/ethnicity was higher among Whites 14.2%, American Indians and Alaska Natives 11.7%, Asians and Pacific Islanders 5.8%, Blacks 5.4% and Hispanics 5.7%. According to the mean method used to commit suicide is a firearm, then suffocation and poisoning. The main cause of suicide is due to mental health condition and depression is at the foremost leading factor.

There are many types of chemical agents that can be used for a variety of effects. Most are not meant to be lethal, but most chemicals at high concentrations can be lethal.

“Death by a suicidal pilot” sounds absurd to think that this even possible. As we consider the hundreds way possible to commit suicide why this way? Is this a new thing or has it been around for years? What regulations are in place to determine a pilot is mentally unstable with a possibility of committing suicide? Is there anything more can the FAA do to prevent this form happing? These are all questions to determine if the current policies in place will reduce aviation assisted suicides to “zero” as we enter the 21th century.

Ninety percent of the general populations who submit suicide have a mental or substance mishandles scatter or both. (May,

Suicide is currently the 10th leading cause of death in the United States (Suicide and Self-Inflicted Injury, 2017). On average, 121 Americans complete suicide each day (CDC Fatal Injuries Report 2015, 2015). The American people are living longer with advances to medical care and technology, yet suicide rates continue to rise. According to the CDC, suicide rates have increased by 24% from the year 1999 to 2014 (Curtain, Warner & Hedegaard, 2016). Consequently, the suicide epidemic continues to grow with no clear path to prevention. This literature review was conducted using the Robert Morris University Library online databases. Databases accessed include PubMed…………., from the years 2000 to 2017. Overall, most the articles obtained are