Mental Health Patients Found Willing to Answer Routine Question on Firearm Access

When patients receiving mental health care were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire that asked whether they had access to guns, most provided a response, reports astudy inJAMA Health Forum. A positive response can help clinicians identify and provide appropriate follow-up care for patients at risk of suicide.“Firearms are the most common method of suicide, one of the ‘diseases of despair’ driving increased mortality in the U.S. over the past decade,” wrote Julie E. Richards, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Kaiser Permanente Washington in Seattle and colleagues. “However, routine standardized questions about firearm access are uncommon, particularly among adult populations, who are more often asked at the discretion of health care clinicians.”In August 2015, Kaiser Permanente clinics in Washington state began incorporating a question about firearm access —“Do you have access to guns?”—to the standard mental health monitoring questionnaire. Richards and colleagues compiled data on 128,802 patients who completed these questionnaires at either a primary care or mental health clinic between 2016 and 2019.Overall, 83.4% of patients in primary care clinics and 91.8% of those in mental health clinics answered the question on access; in both settings those who did not respond were more likely to be older, male, live in a rural setting, and/or have a recent substance use disorder diagnosis. Richards and colleagues noted the rates for nonresponse were much higher than r...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research