BRATTLEBORO — The goal of preventing patient suicide is by no means a concern limited to professionals in psychiatric hospitals and mental health treatment centers. It's a serious issue that is gaining increasing attention from clinicians and administrators in hospital emergency departments, medical/surgical units, and acute care settings across the nation.
And that's exactly the reason why the Brattleboro Retreat's Sharon Chaput, RN, CSHA, senior director of standards and quality, and Kirk Woodring, LICSW, CGP, senior director of access, evaluation and ambulatory services, were asked to write a book to help front-line and administrative staff in acute care hospitals screen for and prevent patient suicides as well as meet the requirements for increasingly stringent accreditation guidelines.
The 180-page book, Assessing the Risk: Suicidal Behavior in the Hospital Environment of Care, published by the health-care compliance and management consulting firm HCPro, Inc., was released on Nov. 30.
The authors describe their first published book as a “practical” guide, rich with rapid interviewing techniques and case studies, along with easy-to-digest information on risk management and accreditation guidelines related to suicide prevention.
“Many people who commit suicide in a hospital setting have undiagnosed psychiatric issues and have never sought psychiatric care in the past,” said Chaput, who lives in Holyoke, Mass.
According to Woodring, who lives in South Deerfield, Mass., professionals in all fields of health care are embracing the benefits of adding simple psychological screening to their typical intake assessments.
“In writing this book, we asked, 'How can we help these clinicians do a solid, meaningful clinical screen that can save lives without adding staff or stress?'” Woodring said.
Regulatory and accrediting bodies have also begun to pay close attention to the value of such psychiatric screening, and compliance with proposed protocols for suicide prevention will go a long way in helping hospitals protect patients, thus limiting liability and maintaining crucial accreditation.
One chapter is dedicated to helping hospital staff differentiate between self-injurious (self cutting, for example) and suicidal behavior.
In the publication's forward, Brattleboro Retreat President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Robert E. Simpson Jr. writes: “This is an important book because it addresses directly the stigma that impedes patients with psychiatric disorders and suicidal tendencies from receiving adequate care in the acute medical setting.”
“By focusing on skill development in the assessment and treatment of suicidal patients, [this book] helps take the fear and anxiety out of the caregiver,” Simpson writes.