SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions: Suicide Prevention

https://goo.gl/we5DEX

This webpage, focused on suicide and suicide prevention, is geared toward health, behavioral health, and integrated care leadership, providers, and patients/consumers. The information and resources listed here can be easily adapted to other groups and settings. Suicide, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and Trauma are often interrelated. Trauma is highly prevalent and a major risk factor for suicide and IPV.  It is, therefore, vital for all staff employed by health, behavioral health, and integrated care organizations to understand the nature and impact of trauma and how to use principles and practices that can promote recovery and healing: Trauma-Informed Approaches. In addition to information and resources on Suicide Prevention, at the CIHS website you will find links to Trauma and Trauma-Informed Approaches webpages, as well as IPV webpages, which we encourage you to explore.

Every 12 minutes, someone in the U.S. takes his or her own life. And for every one suicide, there are 25 attempts. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., and the number and rate of suicides are rising. Each year, more than 900,000 emergency department (ED) visits are made by people thinking of suicide.

Suicide as a public health issue affects everyone: families, health care providers, school personnel, faith communities, friends, and government. The good news is that suicide is often preventable. Research findings by the Henry Ford Health System clearly make the case that health care providers can play a critically important role in preventing suicides by identifying those at risk and responding appropriately. They found that the mental health conditions of most people who die by suicide remain undiagnosed, even though most visit a primary care provider, ED, or medical specialist within the year before they die. The risk of suicide attempts and death is highest within the first 30 days after a person is discharged from an ED or inpatient psychiatric unit, yet as many as 70 percent of patients of all ages who attempt suicide never attend their first outpatient appointment. Therefore, access to clinical interventions and continuity of care after discharge is critical for preventing suicide.