‘Zero Suicide’ Practices at Mental Health Clinics Reduce Suicide Among Patients, Study Finds

Patients who were seen at outpatient mental health clinics were significantly less likely to attempt suicide when clinics practiced“Zero Suicide” principles, including suicide screening, safety planning, and support during care transitions with follow-up after discharge from acute care settings. These findings were published Thursday in areport inPsychiatric Services in Advance.Zero Suicide principles grew out of a 2012 partnership between the Office of the Surgeon General and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP). The NAASP Clinical Care and Intervention Taskforce developed a set of organizational best practices aimed at eliminating suicide and targeted specifically at health care settings. ThePsychiatric Services study is the first to show that when mental health clinics abide by these principles, the risk of suicide among patients is significantly diminished.Deborah M. Layman, M.A., of the New York State Office of Mental Health and colleagues surveyed 110 outpatient mental health clinics in New York state for their “fidelity” to 17 Zero Suicide’s organizational practices (meaning how closely they abided by the practices) using the Zero Suicide Organizational Self-Study questionnaire. Responses to the 17 items were averaged to compute a total Zero Suicide fidelity score for each clinic. Data on suicidal b ehaviors—specifically, suicide attempts and deaths—were extracted from the New York State Incident Management Reporting System.The rese...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: lethal means reduction mental health clinics Psychiatric Services in Advance suicide suicide attempts suicide-specific quality improvement activities Zero suicide Source Type: research