Suicide Prevention Programs - Essay Example

Suicide These days, suicide is one of the leading causes of death of young people in the United s of America, and every day people engage in self-harm activities to end their lives. Some of them do display red-flag behaviors while others do not show they have problems, and this makes detection and prevention of suicide rather difficult and very often even impossible. This means that existing suicide risk assessment programs are not enough to deal with the problem and that the community is not educated enough to be able to detect and prevent suicide of its members. The research paper is aimed at answering the following question: How serious is the issue of suicide in today’s society, and what is done and can be done to change the state of things for the better? The problem of suicide is quite serious in the United States of America. The statistical data on the issue shows that suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for people of all ages, which means it is even more serious than homicide which ranks sixteenth, and the third leading cause of death of young people aged 15-24. Only in 2013, the number of suicide cases in the USA was more than 40,000, and this accounts for about twelve deaths out of 100,000 (Perlis 1009). The reality is even worse: in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States, every 13 minutes a person commits suicide (“Suicide Facts”). There are several groups of people individuals who are at risk of committing suicide. Among them are children and adolescents who experience peer victimization and cyberbullying, veterans, and individuals who suffer from psychological disorders. In accordance with Gini and Espelage, there is a direct relation between peer victimization, cyberbullying and suicide ideation in individuals (545). One interesting and, at the same time, alarming fact is that cyberbullying vicitimization, which is at rise today due to the almost universal availability of the certain technological means and devices alongside with the Internet and anonymity is gives, is even more dangerous than bullying victimization, and this means that the possibility of committing suicide is even higher among the individuals with this experience. Individuals who have history of U. S. military service are also at great risk of committing suicide. Accordingly to the information presented in Kemp and Bossarte’s Suicide Data Report, 2012, more than 18% of all 147,000 cases of suicide in the United States were committed by veterans. Majority of veteran suicides are among individuals who are 50 and older for both males and females. Finally, the last group at risk of suicide is individuals suffering from various psychological disorders. In Perlis states in his article, “individuals with mood disorders are around 20 times more likely than the general population to die by suicide” (1009). With that, the actual rates can be even higher due to the fact that not all the accidents are classified properly and not all the cases are considered as sometimes mental illnesses are not diagnosed or misdiagnosed (Perlis 1009). The statistical data on the suicide rates in the United States is alarming and worrying. The rates are really high, and this means that existing measures of prevention as well as suicide risk assessment do not work properly to deal with the problem and reduce suicide rates in the United States. Today, quite a number of various types of measures are taken with the aim to control and prevents suicide attempts within Americans. Among them are researches and studies in psychiatry aimed at a particular group of people, that is those who suffer from different mental disorders. One of such studies described by Perlis compares the efficacy of two treatments to prevent suicide attempts in patients. Unfortunately, even though such studies do take place, they are not numerous, which means there is not enough data. Such researches are not conducted frequently because of the possibility of hard outcomes and threats that any intervention could lead to degradation of the situation and patients’ suicide attempts. Apart from researches conducted to analyze, control and prevent suicide, suicide risk assessment curriculum with the use of multiple technologies as a type of training was implemented for third-year medical students. In their article titled Technology and Teaching: Suicide Risk Assessment, Shultz, Pandya, and Mehta describe the randomized-controlled study on the efficacy of a virtual multi-user online environments program Second Life (1132-1133). The conducted study shows that implementing such curriculum is likely to improve comfort level assessment and managing the patient. Despite the fact that the above-mentioned studies are proved to be effective, they are not actually implemented. This means that further improvement of the situation is only at its birth. In addition to this, in his article, Perlis shows that at this very stage, psychiatry as a discipline is not at that level of development when it comes to suicide prevention in patients with mental disorders which can give an opportunity to change the state of things for the better. From this, it follows that the problem of high suicide rates cannot be solved within the boundaries of medicine. From what is mentioned above, it follows that the problem of high suicide rates should be solved within the society. For this purpose, a number of education programs for communities are created all over the world. Despite the fact that there is no clear statistical data on their efficacy with coping with the problem, practice shows they do work and have a positive influence on the state of things. More specifically, with the implementation of suicide prevention programs for communities, decline in suicide rates took place in the United States, Canada, and Europe, which means that such programs do work and improve the society’s health literacy and knowledge on the problem of suicide. At the same time, the data suggests that only long-term programs can have a positive impact on the situation at hand (Fountoulakis, Gonda, and Rihmer 14). To prove the fact that long-term programs actually work, one should examine the outcomes of Veterans Health Administration services as well as the data from the Veteran Crisis Line. For example, about 20% of callers to VCL call more than once in month. At the same time, percentage of callers to VCL who are planning to attempt suicide has decreased. In addition to this, the number of calls for help and rescue has decreased, and this suggests that such calls have become less emergent (Kemp, and Bossarte). From what is mentioned, it follows that such long-term prevention programs should be further developed and implemented. The first thing that should be done with the aim to address, detect, prevent suicide and reduce levels of suicide is to make sure that existing suicide prevention programs integrate all the possible resource in the community. In particular, this means that work of professional mental health resources as well as community services should be linked as close as possible to ensure positive results. In suicide prevention programs, it is necessary to rely on several strategies and approaches. This is so because suicide is a rather complex issue caused by a number of factors, among which are personality disorders, lack of coping skills, mental illnesses, family history of suicide, substance abuse and others. From this, it follows that as far as the notion is complex, approaches to cope with it should be multi-faceted as well. The existing programs should be reviewed with the aim to reassess the efficacy of traditional suicide risk assessments in order to find new ways to identify possible causes and stressors within shorter time periods. Also, due to the fact that it is mostly adolescents and young people aged 15-24 that are more likely to commit suicide, certain programs of suicide prevention should be created for peers and teachers to be implemented at educational establishments as well as for parents. At the same time, such programs should be problem-oriented and be focused on the needs of the targeted groups (risk groups) because the improvement of general mental health literacy only does not mean that such programs will help those with suicidal ideation. In other words, in this case theoretical education of the community appears to be important but less essential. Finally, as it has been stressed above, community-based interventions and programs should be long-termed. First of all, there is evidence that short duration interventions have no particular effect. In addition to this, due to their significant duration, long-term programs can be reviewed and changed in accordance with the needs of the targeted group based on the results without their termination. Based on the information obtained through the analysis of available data on suicide, one can draw the conclusion that the problem is acute and very serious in the American society as thousands of people choose to end their lives rather than call for help. The existing programs do work but very often they are not enough for detecting and preventing suicide as the statistical data shows. Therefore, they should be improved and changed accordingly with the targeted groups’ needs as well as the community’s need of knowledge so that the situation is improved. Works Cited Fountoulakis, K. N., X. Gonda, and Z. Rihmer. "Suicide Prevention Programs Through Community Intervention." Journal of Affective Disorders. 130. (2011): 10-16. Web. 29 Jun. 2015. Gini, G., and D. L. Espelage. "Peer Victimization, Cyberbullyin, and Suicide Risk in Children and Adolescents." JAMA. 312.5 (2014): 545-546. Web. 29 Jun. 2015. Kemp, J., and R. Bossarte. Department of Veteran Affairs. Suicide Data Report, 2012. Washington, DC: Department of Veterans Affairs, Mental Health Services, Suicide Prevention Program, 2013. Print. Perlis, R. H. "Hard Outcomes: Clinical Trial to Reduce Suicide." American Journal of Psychiatry. 168.10 (2011): 1009-1011. Web. 29 Jun. 2015. Shultz, E., M. Pandya, and N. Mehta. "Technology and Teaching: Suicide Risk Assessment." Medical Education. 47. (2013): 1132-1133. Web. 29 Jun. 2015. "Suicide Facts." Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. N.p., 2014. Web. 29 Jun 2015. . Read More