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Resources

Suicide Prevention

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The Lifeline currently helps thousands of people overcome crisis situations every day.

 

A central access resource line to provide

pre-screening to keep people from waiting in the wrong line and speed access

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Suicide Prevention

In Illinois, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death resulting in more than 1,000 deaths each year.

 

For young adults 15 to 34 years of age, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in Illinois.

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Suicide is recognized as a chronic epidemic, despite the overwhelming numbers, the tragedy of suicide is hidden by stigma, myth and shame.

 

The stigma surrounding suicide often has an impact on prevention and intervention efforts.

 

Additionally, many people have the mistaken notion that talking about suicide causes it to happen but experts agree that suicide & overdose are preventable.

Illinois Suicide Prevention Alliance

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Transformational Framework

for

 Behavioral Health Care Systems

The alliance’s purpose is to bring together public and private organizations and stakeholders concerned with mental health to implement the goals and objectives that reduce this tragedy, using a positive, public health approach. Suicide is recognized as a chronic epidemic, despite the overwhelming numbers, the tragedy of suicide is hidden by stigma, myth and shame. The stigma surrounding suicide often has an impact on prevention and intervention efforts. Additionally, many people have the mistaken notion that talking about suicide causes it to happen but experts agree that suicide is preventable.

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The foundational belief of Zero Suicide is that suicide deaths for individuals under the care of medical and behavioral health systems are preventable.

 

For systems dedicated to improving patient safety, Zero Suicide presents an aspirational challenge and practical framework for system-wide transformation toward safer suicide care.

Core Components

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Foundational Principles

Core Values—the belief and commitment that suicide can be eliminated in a population under care by improving service access and quality and through practicing continuous quality improvement.

 

Systems Management—taking systematic steps across systems of care to create a culture that no longer finds suicide acceptable, setting aggressive but achievable goals to eliminate suicide attempts and deaths, and organizing service delivery and support accordingly.

 

Evidence-Based Clinical Care Practices—adopting practices that research shows reduce suicide deaths and behaviors and that are delivered through the entire system of care and that emphasize productive patient-staff interactions.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

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1-800-273- TALK (8255)

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En Español

1-888-628-9454

40-bed emergency shelter for women

& their children needing a safe place to stay

Community Crisis Hotline

847-697-2380

847-697-9740

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Veterans Crisis Line

1-800-273-8255

Text 838255

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NAMI Chicago Helpline

833.626.4244

Sign the young person in your life up for #NAMIChicagoChat!

This 1-hour program for youth aged 10-13

Email us at:

education@namichicago.org.3d

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Crisis Text Line

Text “HELLO” to 741741

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Crisis Line of Will and Grundy Counties

(815) 722-3344 x815

1-833-9-HELP4MOMS

(1-833-943-5746)

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Suicide Prevention Resource Center

www.sprc.org

 

National Institutes of Health

www.nimh.nih.gov

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 Transform Suicide Care

LEAD

Lead system-wide culture change committed to reducing suicides.

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Acknowledge that top leadership commitment and dedicated front line champions are both necessary for success.

 

Leadership must both convince staff to see and believe that suicide can be prevented and provide tangible supports in a safe and blame-free environment—what is known as a just culture.

01

Train a competent, confident, and caring workforce.

TRAIN

Train a competent, confident, and caring workforce. Interactions with staff are a critical part of any patient experience.

 

This is doubly true for many suicidal individuals who have had experiences with health care providers and/or law enforcement where interventions were not met, their suicidality not reduced, and worse, the victim feeling ashamed, stigmatized or further traumatized.

 

For many people at risk,

this is their first encounter with the behavioral health care system.

 

Any door must be the right door – through which the staff, both clinical and non-clinical, engage people at risk

by encouraging them to believe

treatment can work.

 

 That the clinical staff team or officer or judge

 care about them,

instilling a commitment to come back to the next appointment or stay alive long enough to appear at the next court date.

 

Understanding that ambivalence—the desire to find a solution to the intense pain they feel versus the innate human desire to live—

is essential for any clinician working

with a patient at risk of suicide.

02

IDENTIFY

Identify individuals with suicide risk via comprehensive screening and assessment.

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For those who screen positive, the use of a standardized risk assessment tool and risk formulation needs to be conducted to determine the course of treatment and next steps. People should be screened at every visit with a health care professional and all health care providers need to be comfortable asking about suicide directly and without judgment.

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ENGAGE 

Engage all individuals at-risk of suicide risk and/or overdose using a suicide care management plan.

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Talk with individuals openly about their suicide risk and/or overdose the treatment available to address it.

 

Those who screen positive for suicide and/or overdose should develop a collaborative safety plan with a clinician or health care worker before going home.

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THE SAFETY PLAN

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Also called a Wellness recovery action plan (WRAP) or crisis response plan, needs to address safety.

 

Individuals at risk for suicide or overdose should understand their suicide care management plan which includes what to expect from treatment, the placement on a high-risk pathway, and what that means both for ongoing appointments as well as for missed appointments.

 

It is the organization’s responsibility to keep the patient engaged in and coming to care by being patient-centered, committed to quality, safe, timely, and culturally relevant treatment and care.

04

TREAT​

Treat suicidal thoughts and behaviors directly using evidence-based treatments.

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Research in the last 10 to 15 years has emerged to suggest that suicide and overdose can be targeted directly through treatments that focus explicitly trauma informed care, both to keep patients safe and to help them to thrive.

 

Randomized controlled trials have found that the:

* Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CT-SP)

* Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)

* Collaborative Assessment

* Management of Suicide (CAMS)

 

all reduce suicide and suicidal behaviors.

 

Even brief interventions delivered during single in-person encounters are effective at reducing suicide behaviors and overdose deaths. 

 

It is essential that clinicians apply these techniques that are known to reduce suicide, but they must be trained in these modalities.

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TRANSITION​

Transition individuals through care with warm hand-offs and supportive contacts.

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Patients are at the highest risk for suicide in the immediate aftermath of a psychiatric hospitalization.

 

There is a clear need for universal and continuing interventions and support following discharge.

 

Despite the evidence that it is critical for safety, only about half of patients receive any outpatient care during the first week after psychiatric hospital discharge, and one-third receive no mental health care at all during the first month after discharge.

 

Linkages to providers through warm handoffs must be created as well as more support and helping patients understand what to expect from care is necessary.

 

Providers should routinely use caring contacts, appointment reminders, and bridge appointments to ensure that patients went to appointments and plan to keep on going.

06

IMPROVE

Improve policies and procedures through continuous quality improvement.

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Collect and examine data routinely and maintain fidelity to the processes established for the system.

 

Specifying all aspects of suicide care in the clinical workflow and monitored in an electronic health record will provide necessary data to identify successes and failures in care.

 

However, continuous quality improvement can only be effectively implemented in a safety-oriented, "just" culture free of blame for individual clinicians when a patient attempts or dies by suicide, which would include supporting clinicians and staff following the suicide death of a patient.

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Do not believe everything you think.

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