Datapoints: Suicide and Access to Care

Contact of Mental and Nonmental Health Care Providers Prior to Suicide in Taiwan: A Population-Based Study

“…The very few large-scale population-based studies have either solely examined the use of mental health services, [13][14][15] or have relied on reports by family members of the deceased, a strategy that could of course introduce the problem of recall bias. 16 A comprehensive review by Luoma et al 12 indicated that in 77% of suicide deaths examined there was some contact with primary health care providers within the 1-year period prior to their deaths. The suicide victims had contact with mental health care providers in only 32% of all cases.…”

Tilting the Frame: Israeli Suicide as an Alternative to Suicide in Israel

“…A number of studies have found that a vast majority of people who died by suicide, ranging from half to three quarters, did not have any recent contact with mental health services prior to their deaths (Andersen et al 2000, Appleby et al 1999, Law and Yip 2008, Centre for Suicide Prevention 2009, Miller and Druss 2001, Pirkis and Burgess 1998, Vassilas and Morgan 1993. Therefore, the public health approach can help to form a more comprehensive and effective suicide prevention strategy in dealing with those with or without ever coming in contact with the mental health services.…”

“…However, it has been found that the majority of people who committed suicide did not receive psychiatric services prior to death (Andersen et al 2000, Appleby et al 1999, Cavanagh et al 2003, Lee et al 2008. People who committed suicide were found almost three times as likely to have been unable to get the needed medical care compared to those who died by other causes of death (Miller and Druss 2001). In other words, even individual patients can benefit from effective intervention.…”

A population-based prospective cohort study utilizing adminstrative data for the analysis of self-injury among depressed British Columbian youth.

“…However, among suicide victims with major depression, only 46% had sought treatment from a mental health professional, less than a third had received treatment in their last year of life, and less than a quarter were being treated with antidepressants (Jellinek & Snyder, 1998;Miller & Druss, 2001). It must be noted that most persons with a mental illness do not commit suicide and other factors are involved (Stovall & Domino, 2003).…”

“…Health Care System Improvements that Could Reduce Suicide Incidence Miller and Druss (2001) estimated that compared to people who die of other conditions, suicide victims are nearly 3 times as likely to be unable to receive needed care and twice as likely to have been refused needed care. In British Columbia during 1994-1995, only 14% of males and 37% of females aged 20-24 who committed suicide at the time of the suicide, were seeing a mental health professional, being treated with medication for a mental health problem or participating in a therapeutic group lead by a mental health professional (White & Rouse, 1997).…”