Study: Primary Care May Be Path to More Effective Suicide Prevention
March 07, 2014
One in every five people who died by suicide in the US from 2000 to 2010 had visited a health care provider in the previous week, according to a new national study. Conducted by researchers at the Health Policy and Health Services Research Center at the Henry Ford Health System, the longitudinal review of more than 5,800 people who died by suicide also found that 83 percent of them had seen a doctor or received some kind of health care in the year prior to their deaths—but that half of those individuals did not have a mental health diagnosis. In fact, the researchers reported that “only 24% had a mental health diagnosis in the 4-week period prior to death.” Based on these data, researchers suggest that there may be important opportunities for intervention in health care settings. They conclude: “Greater efforts should be made to assess mental health and suicide risk. Most visits occur in primary care or medical specialty settings, and suicide prevention in these clinics would likely reach the largest number of individuals.”
Spark Extra! Learn about recommendations for suicide risk screening and assessment in primary care settings.