The Public Health Agency of Canada is funding a new Canada Suicide Prevention Service (CSPS), timely both in recognition of the need for a public health approach to suicide prevention, and also in ...the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is causing concern about the potential for increases in suicide. This editorial reviews priorities for suicide prevention in Canada, in relation to the evidence for crisis line services, and current international best practices in the implementation of crisis lines; in particular, the CSPS recognizes the importance of being guided by existing evidence as well as the opportunity to contribute to evidence, to lead innovation in suicide prevention, and to involve communities and people with lived experience in suicide prevention efforts.
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Therapy After Terror examines the 2001 World Trade Center attack from the perspectives of New York City mental health professionals who treated the psychologically wounded following the attack. ...Therapists discuss the attack's effects on their patients, its personal and professional consequences for them, and the ways it challenged fundamental aspects of clinical theory and practice. The book describes crisis mental health services that were established after the attack, as well as longer-term treatments. It also examines notions of trauma, diagnostic procedures, and the politics of psychological treatment. Seeley uses her unique interdisciplinary background as she provides a detailed study of the post-9/11 mental health crisis, including depictions of the restricted 'hot spots' such as the Lexington Avenue Armory, Family Assistance Centers, and Respite Centers at Ground Zero, where mental health workers delivered aid.
There are an estimated 800,000 suicides per year globally, and approximately 16,000,000 suicide attempts. Mobile apps may help address the unmet needs of people at risk. We assessed adherence of ...suicide prevention advice in depression management and suicide prevention apps to six evidence-based clinical guideline recommendations: mood and suicidal thought tracking, safety plan development, recommendation of activities to deter suicidal thoughts, information and education, access to support networks, and access to emergency counseling.
A systematic assessment of depression and suicide prevention apps available in Google Play and Apple's App Store was conducted. Apps were identified by searching 42matters in January 2019 for apps launched or updated since January 2017 using the terms "depression," "depressed," "depress," "mood disorders," "suicide," and "self-harm." General characteristics of apps, adherence with six suicide prevention strategies identified in evidence-based clinical guidelines using a 50-question checklist developed by the study team, and trustworthiness of the app based on HONcode principles were appraised and reported as a narrative review, using descriptive statistics.
The initial search yielded 2690 potentially relevant apps. Sixty-nine apps met inclusion criteria and were systematically assessed. There were 20 depression management apps (29%), 3 (4%) depression management and suicide prevention apps, and 46 (67%) suicide prevention apps. Eight (12%) depression management apps were chatbots. Only 5/69 apps (7%) incorporated all six suicide prevention strategies. Six apps (6/69, 9%), including two apps available in both app stores and downloaded more than one million times each, provided an erroneous crisis helpline number. Most apps included emergency contact information (65/69 apps, 94%) and direct access to a crisis helpline through the app (46/69 apps, 67%).
Non-existent or inaccurate suicide crisis helpline phone numbers were provided by mental health apps downloaded more than 2 million times. Only five out of 69 depression and suicide prevention apps offered all six evidence-based suicide prevention strategies. This demonstrates a failure of Apple and Google app stores, and the health app industry in self-governance, and quality and safety assurance. Governance levels should be stratified by the risks and benefits to users of the app, such as when suicide prevention advice is provided.
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Strategies and Interventions to Reduce Suicide National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division, Health and Medicine; Policy, Board on Health Sciences ...
05/2022
eBook
Open access
The persistent trends in suicide necessitate action among mental health care providers and payers, researchers, and community leaders. Health care settings provide an important opportunity for ...suicide intervention and prevention, but they cannot yet fully manage suicide risk because of a lack of training, knowledge gaps, and reimbursement challenges. School, workplace, and community-based interventions can help reduce the incidence of suicidal behavior, as can better access to care and reduced access to lethal means of suicide.
To better understand the strategies to improve access to effective interventions to prevent suicide, the Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a two-part virtual public workshop, Strategies and Interventions to Reduce Suicide, on June 22, 2021, and July 28, 2021. The first webinar examined the scope of the public health problem, discussed implementation of effective approaches for suicide prevention care, and addressed known barriers to health care access. The second webinar focused on building 9-8-8, the new nationwide emergency number designated to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Participants discussed current crisis systems, gaps, challenges, and needs for marginalized populations. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions that occurred during the workshops.
Introduction
The COVID‐19 pandemic has brought a health care crisis of unparalleled devastation. A mental health crisis as a second wave has begun to emerge in our front‐line health care workers.
...Objective
To address these needs, The Healthcare Worker Mental Health COVID‐19 Hotline, based on crisis intervention principles, was developed and launched in 2 weeks.
Methods
Upon reflection of why this worked, we decided it might be useful to describe what we now recognize as 13‐steps which led to our success. The process included the following: (1) anticipate mental health needs; (2) use leadership capable of mobilizing the systems and resources; (3) convene a multidisciplinary team; (4) delegate tasks and set timelines; (5) choose a clinical service model; (6) motivate staff as a workforce of volunteers; (7) develop training and educational materials; (8) develop personal, local, and national resources; (9) develop marketing plans; (10) deliver the training; (11) launch a 24 hr/7days per week Healthcare Worker Mental Health COVID‐19 Hotline, and launch follow‐up sessions for staff; (12) structure data collection to determine effectiveness and outcomes; and (13) obtain funding (not required).
Discussion
We believe the process we used is specifically useful for others who may want to develop a COVID‐19 hotline services for health care workers and generally useful for the development of other mental health services.
Conclusion
We hope that this process may serve as a guide for other heath care systems.
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Abstract
Background
While suicide rates in high- and middle-income countries appeared stable in the early stages of the pandemic, we know little about within-country variations. We sought to ...investigate the impact of COVID-19 on suicide in Mexico’s 32 states and to identify factors that may have contributed to observed variations between states.
Methods
Interrupted time-series analysis to model the trend in monthly suicides before COVID-19 (from Jan 1, 2010, to March 31, 2020), comparing the expected number of suicides derived from the model with the observed number for the remainder of the year (April 1 to December 31, 2020) for each of Mexico’s 32 states. Next, we modeled state-level trends using linear regression to study likely contributing factors at ecological level.
Results
Suicide increased slightly across Mexico during the first nine months of the pandemic (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.01–1.05). Suicides remained stable in 19 states, increase in seven states (RR range: 1.12–2.04) and a decrease in six states (RR range: 0.46–0.88). Suicide RR at the state level was positively associated with population density in 2020 and state level suicide death rate in 2019.
Conclusions
The COVID-19 pandemic had a differential effect on suicide death within the 32 states of Mexico. Higher population density and higher suicide rates in 2019 were associated with increased suicide. As the country struggles to cope with the ongoing pandemic, efforts to improve access to primary care and mental health care services (including suicide crisis intervention services) in these settings should be given priority.
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The Theory of Planned Behavior posits that behaviors are predicted by one’s intention to perform them; intention is driven by attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral ...control. We used this theory to predict Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)-trained and non-CIT officers’ intention to facilitate referral of persons with suspected mental illnesses to mental health services. CIT-trained (
n
= 251) and non-CIT (
n
= 335) officers from six law enforcement agencies participated. CIT-trained officers had significantly greater scores on all constructs. Theory constructs fit the data well, and fit did not differ meaningfully between the two groups. Direct and indirect predictors together accounted for 28% and 21%, respectively, of variance in behavioral intention. Attitude was the strongest predictor. Intentions to facilitate mental health referrals may be driven by the same factors among CIT-trained and non-CIT officers, but CIT officers, even at a median of 22 months after training, have significantly higher scores on those factors.
ABSTRACT
Metaphors of flooding and “flows” are often applied in the public sphere to the phenomena of displacement and migration, but there are also “waves” and “tides” of humanitarian actors, ...“voluntourists,” and researchers now focused on refugees. Humanitarian, security, and anthropological interventions in the European “refugee crisis” of 2015–16 often operate according to a shared logic of urgency and crisis. Key problems and pitfalls in current anthropological trends in the study of displacement on Europe's doorstep are linked to the business dimensions of anthropological work. The business of anthropology reinforces the European refugee regime, which makes border crossers into targets of policing, intervention, and study. crisis, refugees, displacement, anthropology, Greece, Europe
o
Μεταφορές πλημμύρας και «ροών» συχνά εφαρμόζονται στα φαινόμενα εκτοπισμού και μετανάστευσης στη δημόσια σφαίρα, αλλά υπάρχουν επίσης «κύματα» και «παλίρροιες» ανθρωπιστικών φορέων, «εθελοτουρισμού» και ερευνητών, οι οποίοι τώρα επικεντρώνονται στους πρόσφυγες. Ανθρωπιστικές παρεμβάσεις, παρεμβάσεις ασφάλειας και ανθρωπολογικές παρεμβάσεις στην Ευρωπαϊκή «προσφυγική κρίση» του 2015–16 συχνά λειτουργούν σύμφωνα με μια κοινή λογική επείγοντος και κρίσης. Κεντρικά προβλήματα και παγίδες των σύγχρονων ανθρωπολογικών τάσεων στη μελέτη του εκτοπισμού στο κατώφλι της Ευρώπης, συνδέονται με τις επιχειρηματικές διαστάσεις της ανθρωπολογικής εργασίας. Η ανθρωπολογία ως επιχειρηματική δράση ενισχύει το Ευρωπαϊκό προσφυγικό καθεστώς, το οποίο μετατρέπει αυτούς που διασχίζουν σύνορα σε στόχους αστυνόμευσης, παρέμβασης και μελέτης. κρίση, πρόσφυγες, εκτοπισμός, ανθρωπολογία, Ελλάδα, Ευρώπη
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