The Joint Commission today issued new Sentinel Event Alert #56: Detecting and Treating Suicide Ideation in All Settings, aiming to assist healthcare organizations providing both inpatient and outpatient care with better identifying and treating individuals with suicidal ideation.
The Joint Commission indicates the rate of suicide is increasing in the United States, and is now the tenth leading cause of death. Suicide claims more lives than traffic accidents, and more than twice as many lives as homicides. At the point of care, providers often do not detect the suicidal thoughts of individuals, including children and adolescents, who eventually die by suicide, even though most of these individuals receive healthcare services in the year prior to death, usually for reasons unrelated to suicidal ideation or mental health.
Suicide events are consistently among the top 10 reported sentinel events, and, along with fall-related events, were the third most reviewed sentinel event in 2015.
The suggested actions in the Alert cover suicidal ideation detection, as well as the screening, risk assessment, safety, treatment, discharge, and follow-up care of at-risk individuals. Also included are suggested actions for educating all staff about suicide risk, keeping health care environments safe for individuals at risk for suicide, and documenting their care.
The Alert also includes a list of Joint Commission standards relevant to suicide, and an infographic.
The new Sentinel Event Alert #56: Detecting and Treating Suicide Ideation in All Settings replaces two previous Sentinel Event Alerts on suicide, Issues #7 and #46.
HNX Healthcare Update 