Suicide in a National Student Mental Health Patient Population, 1997–2012

Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suhanthini Farrell ◽  
Nav Kapur ◽  
David While ◽  
Louis Appleby ◽  
Kirsten Windfuhr

Abstract. Background: Entering higher education is a time of transition that coincides with the typical age of onset of serious mental illness. Awareness of the distinguishing characteristics of students with mental illness who die by suicide may inform clinical management. Aim: We aimed to compare the characteristics of mental health patients who died by suicide as students with other young people who died by suicide. Method: UK data were analyzed for individuals aged 18–35 years in contact with mental health services who died by suicide from 1997 to 2012. Univariate analyses examined the sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical features of those who died as students. Backward stepwise regression analysis identified factors independently associated with student deaths. Results: In all, 214 university students died by suicide within 12 months of mental health service contact. Factors associated with student deaths were: being younger, female, from an ethnic minority group, and a primary diagnosis of affective disorder. Medication nonadherence was less likely to be associated with student deaths. Conclusion: Deaths by suicide are split almost equally between male and female students, unlike the predominance of male suicide in the general population. There are clear differences in the characteristics of the student and nonstudent groups, although causation could not be established.

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 451-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. F. Chung ◽  
M. C. Wong

Aims and MethodThe study was intended to rectify the lack of data on how Chinese people experience the stigma of mental illness. A questionnaire on perceived stigmatisation, experiences of rejection and ways of coping with stigma was completed by 193 persons attending a psychiatric out-patient clinic in Hong Kong.ResultsMost of the participants were aware of the stigma associated with mental illness, but experiences of rejection were relatively less frequent. Eleven per cent of the respondents indicated that they were neglected by health care professionals and 8% had been avoided by family members. The most frequently reported coping method was maintaining secrecy about the illness.Clinical ImplicationsIn China, people with mental health problems experience stigma in various degrees. However, some of the people surveyed expressed feelings of relief that others were supportive and sympathetic towards their illness. Mental health professionals should maintain optimism in helping their patients to cope with the stigma.


Author(s):  
Pawan Gupta

It is estimated that 1 in 4 people in a year will have some kind of mental health problem, and that mixed anxiety and depression is the most common disorder in the UK. There is an increasing number of mental health patients attending the ED, and a new FY doctor in the ED will encounter such patients from their first shift onwards. The approach to a mental health patient is only marginally different from the approach to those presenting under other specialties. The assessment largely depends on careful history taking and attentively listening to the patient’s narrative. There are only a few situations in psychiatry in which a physical examination and investigations are required in the ED to make a diagnosis. As it would not be possible to cover all the areas of psychiatry which come through the doors of the ED in one chapter, only a few questions have been included here to provide a flavour of the common psychiatric situations that FY1/2s may come across in their early training period. The UK has the highest rate of self-harm in Europe and so one of the most important points is to recognize suicidal patients who can harm themselves seriously and manage them appropriately. If such patients are discharged following an inadequate assessment, they may go on to commit suicide and the attending doctors would have missed the opportunity to support and save them. In this category of patients, when they present to the ED, no matter how minimal is the level of their self-mutilation, it is a serious ‘cry’ for help. Our job is to listen to the patient and support them with the maximum help we can provide. As it may be difficult to occasionally get to the bottom of the problem, particularly within the time constraints in the ED, a low level of suspicion should be kept to ask for the assistance of the mental health expert. Self-harm and depression go almost hand in hand. The suicidal rate is higher in depressed patients than in the general population.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shao Chen ◽  
Yunshu Zhang ◽  
Jinghua Cao ◽  
Keqing Li

Basicneeds Foundation as an international charitable organization,after years of efforts,it explores a suitable for the development of mental health services and the development model and developed countries.It makes the majority of mental health patients recover their health, social function and the ability to work has been restored.Since 2012, carried out in China, also made a lot of results.This article starts from Basicneeds’s five modules, which were summarized in China Baoding Shunping rural areas, for mental illness research progress.At the same time, the Basicneeds group also hopes to improve its model, making it more suitable for the situation in China, and in more places be promoted.


1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 434-436
Author(s):  
Laurence G. Measey

In February 1994 the Royal College of Psychiatrists contacted the Benefits Agency Medical Services (BAMS) to take part in their consultation exercise before bringing in the new Incapacity Benefit (IB) in April 1995. This new benefit was to replace the then existing Invalidity Benefit which was being paid to over 250 000 people with a primary diagnosis of mental illness. The main changes were that a patient's own general practitioner (GP) would certify incapacity for work for the first 29 weeks of sickness and after this the continuation of benefit (IB) would require assessment by a BAMS doctor, with some illness categories being exempt from medical examination. The aim was to create standardised criteria across the UK and to do so in an objective fashion, based on function rather than diagnosis. The test is designed to look at ability to work in any capacity rather than the claimant's own work which is the criterion for the first 29 weeks.


2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (15) ◽  
pp. 1682-1700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Kigerl ◽  
Zachary Hamilton

There is a growing need in Washington to triage patients being considered for inpatient treatment. There has previously been no risk assessment normed to persons with mental illness in the State of Washington. The Static Risk Assessment (SRA) is used in Washington to assess risk among offenders under State Department of Corrections supervision. The present study sought to create and validate a new risk assessment, the SRA for Mental Health Patients (SRA-MHP), for two mental health populations in Washington. A sample of 16,289 patients involuntarily committed due to being deemed dangerous or gravely disabled, as well as a sample of 8,713 forensic patients undergoing a competency evaluation to stand trial after being charged with a crime, was gathered to assess the utility in applying the SRA-MHP to persons with mental illness. Results indicate that the SRA-MHP has high predictive performance for these samples.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Dempsey ◽  
Cameron Quanbeck ◽  
Clarissa Bush ◽  
Kelly Kruger

De-institutionalization of mental health patients has evolved, over nearly 3 generations now, to a status quo of mental health patients experiencing myriad contacts with first-responders, primarily police, in lieu of care. The current institutions in which these patients rotate through are psychiatric emergency units, emergency rooms, jails, and prisons. Although more police are now specially trained to respond to calls that involve mental health patients, the criminalization of persons with mental illness has been steadily increasing over the past several decades. There have also been deaths. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model fosters mental health acumen among first responders, and facilitates collaboration among first responders, mental health professionals, and mental health patients and their families. Here, we review some modern, large city configurations of CIT, the co-responder model, the mitigating effects of critically situated community-based programs, as well as barriers to the success of joint efforts to better address this pressing problem.


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