This data brief examines adult mental health-related physician office visits by specialty and selected patient characteristics. Data from the 2012–2014 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) were used for these analyses.
Resource Types: Fact Sheet/Issue Brief
Suicide prevention facts and resources
This two-page fact sheet includes information about suicide in the U.S., the Suicide Assessment Five-Step Evaluation and Triage for clinicians, and the warning signs for suicide. It also provides a list of suicide prevention resources and online directories for treatment and crisis services.
Addressing the challenges of the opioid crisis and serious mental illness
This two-page fact sheet includes information about opioid abuse and serious mental illness in the U.S., and how SAMHSA is addressing these challenges. It describes resources, priorities, and key activities for preventing and addressing the related issues of opioid abuse, serious mental illness, and suicide.
Pain in the nation: Healthcare systems brief: How healthcare systems can help address the drug, alcohol and suicide crises
This brief provides guidance on how healthcare systems can address drug, alcohol and suicide crises through a “whole health”, systemwide approach. This model integrates services and programs, including new and existing ones and employs multi-disciplinary partners and collaborators to decrease fragmentation and provide comprehensive behavioral health services.
Pain in the nation update: Deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide reach the highest level ever recorded
This issue brief reports on 2016 alcohol-and drug-induced fatalities and suicide which had reached the highest number ever recorded, 142,000 Americans or an average of one every four minutes. Data are provided by age group, sex group, state, drug type and suicide. Refers to recommendations in the report, Pain in the nation: The drug, alcohol and suicide epidemics and the need for a national resilience strategy.
State veteran suicide data sheets
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) produced this series of state-by-state fact sheets which include suicide data by sex, adult age group and means for the year 2016. The state rates are compared with the rest of the region and nation. These fact sheets are based on the VA’s report, Suicide among veterans and other Americans, 2001–2016, a comprehensive review of more than 55 million records which allowed the VA to examine veteran suicide rates in each state and region. These are updated versions of the sheets corrected for minor inconsistencies in 2018.
Characteristics of homeless individuals using emergency department services in 2014
This Statistical Brief examines the characteristics and disposition if homeless individuals reporting to emergency departments (EDs). It cover mental illness, suicide and self-inflicted harm, insurance status, age range, race/ethnicity and the type of hospital (teaching vs. nonteaching) for the year 2014. Data were from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) 2014 State Inpatient Databases (SID) and 2014 State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) from eight States (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, and Wisconsin).
Understanding the impact of suicide in rural America: Policy brief and recommendations
This policy brief discusses national suicide trends based on the level of urbanization, highlights federal resources, and offers recommendations on how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can better inform policy as it relates to reducing overall rates and deaths in rural America.
Surveillance success stories – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
This story details how the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) improved its systemwide surveillance of suicide deaths and self-harm, including suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury. By standardizing its data collection and reporting processes, CDCR was able to better understand and address suicide and self-harm within its prison system.
This story is part of SPRC’s Surveillance Success Story Series, which describes how states, tribes, and health systems access and analyze data on suicide deaths and attempts, and use data to inform evaluation and program planning.
Making the connection: Suicidal thoughts and behaviors and academic grades
Data from the 2015 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicates that students that student with a high grade point average were much less likely to feel sad or hopeless nearly every day for at least 2 weeks in a row, seriously consider attempting suicide, make a plan to attempt suicide and actually attempt suicide. School health professionals, officials and other stakeholders can use this information to target suicide prevention activities to assist students at risk.