The Impacts of Working with People Experiencing Suicidal Ideation: Mental Health Nurses Describe Their Experience

Qualitative Description ◽

Work Place ◽

National Guidelines ◽

Graduate Studies ◽

Mental Health Nurses ◽

Suicidal Crisis ◽

<p>New Zealand has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and mental health nurses are the most likely professionals to assess a person presenting with suicidal ideation. Managing a suicidal crisis is acknowledged as being one of the most difficult and frightening challenges facing mental health professionals. This research aimed to have mental health nurses who work in acute mental health settings describe the impact that working with people experiencing suicidal ideation has on their personal and professional lives. This study followed the tenets of fundamental qualitative description as presented by Sandelowski (2000). Five mental health nurses participated in individual semi structured interviews. The data collected under-went systematic thematic analysis and the extracted findings were presented as a straight description. The findings from this study revealed that personal philosophies of care, the work place culture, organisational and professional expectations and their personal concepts about suicide all influenced the experiences of these participants. Mental exhaustion, tension and feelings of isolation and alienation from family and society were universal experiences. Two recommendations have been made based on the insights gained from this research. These are; tertiary institutions should offer post graduate studies on the subject of suicide as it relates to mental health nursing and national guidelines for the provision of supervision to mental health nurses need to be developed.</p>

The Impacts of Working with People Experiencing Suicidal Ideation: Mental Health Nurses Describe Their Experience

10.26686/wgtn.16959181 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Lynley Murtagh

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Qualitative Description ◽

Work Place ◽

National Guidelines ◽

Graduate Studies ◽

Mental Health Nurses ◽

Suicidal Crisis ◽

Association between suicide attempts and insight among patients with bipolar disorders

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.1144 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (S1) ◽

pp. S330-S330

Author(s):

A. Cardoso ◽

P. Aguiar ◽

M. Byrne ◽

M. Xavier

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Treatment Adherence ◽

Illness Perception ◽

Bipolar Disorders ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Suicide Attempted ◽

IntroductionInsight is an important factor associated with non-compliance and poor outcome. Poor level of insight has been described as a characteristic in patients with acute bipolar disorder with more unawareness in social consequences. In contrast, awareness of having a mental disorder, of its symptoms, of its consequences, and/or of the need for treatment is associated with a number of positive prognostic indicators. Insight is also linked, however, to depression and suicidal ideation in bipolar disorder.Objectives(1) Assess the illness perception. (2) Assess the impact of insight in suicidal tendencies.AimsContribute to development measures to improve the insight in bipolar disorders.MethodsIn this cross sectional study we use a convenience sample of patients with bipolar disorder attending in the mental health departments of three general hospitals in Lisbon great area. We have applied clinical and socio-demographic questionnaire and additional measures to assess symptom severity, treatment adherence and illness perception.ResultsA samples was composed by 64 patients with bipolar disorder (mean age = 38.7; SD ± 10.1). A total of 48.4% patients (n = 31) had made a suicide attempted and 23.4% (n = 15) of this patient done 5 or more attempted suicide. We found a significant correlation with symptoms and insight (rs = 0.56; P < 0.01).ConclusionMental health professionals often utilize insight as an indicator of prognosis, because of its association with treatment adherence. The findings of the current study suggest that having intact or good insight may be an indicator for suicidal ideation among patients with bipolar disorders. A brief psychoeducational approach could potentially be effective. We recommend a combined approach to Improve clinical insight in bipolar disorder.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

What Gives a Diagnostic Label Value? Common Use Over Informativeness

10.31234/osf.io/er6ku ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Babak Hemmatian ◽

Sze Yu Yu Chan ◽

Steven A. Sloman

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Causal Relation ◽

Causal Beliefs ◽

Diagnostic Categories ◽

Diagnostic Labels ◽

Diagnostic Label ◽

The Impact ◽

Practical Implications

A label’s entrenchment, its degree of use by members of a community, affects its perceived explanatory value even if the label provides no substantive information (Hemmatian & Sloman, 2018). In three experiments, we show that laypersons and mental health professionals see entrenched psychiatric and non-psychiatric diagnostic labels as better explanations than non-entrenched labels even if they are circular. Using scenarios involving experts who discuss unfamiliar diagnostic categories, we show that this preference is not due to violations of conversational norms, lack of reflectiveness or attentiveness, and the characters’ familiarity or unfamiliarity with the label. In Experiment 1, whether a label provided novel symptom information or not had no impact on lay responses, while its entrenchment enhanced ratings of explanation quality. The effect persisted in Experiment 2 for causally incoherent categories and regardless of direct provision of mechanistic information. The effect of entrenchment was partly related to induced causal beliefs about the category, even when participants were informed there is no causal relation. Most participants in both experiments did not report any effect of entrenchment and the effect was present for those who did not. In Experiment 3, mental health professionals showed the effect using diagnoses that were mere shorthands for symptoms, despite a tendency to rate all explanations as unsatisfactory. The data suggest that bringing experts’ attention to the manipulation eliminates the effect. We discuss practical implications for mental health disciplines and potential ways to mitigate the impact of entrenchment.

Training Preservice Mental Health Counselors for Suicide Assessment: A Multiple Baseline Study

10.31234/osf.io/dpj97 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Teal Bohrer ◽

Cass Dykeman

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

The United States ◽

Multiple Baseline ◽

Future Research ◽

Probe Design ◽

Mental Health Clinicians ◽

Suicide Assessment ◽

Rates of death by suicide continue to increase across the United States. Mental health clinicians often have contact with individuals expressing suicidal ideation, but research suggests clinicians may not be appropriately prepared to assess a client’s suicide risk. Numerous models and theories explain and assess suicidal ideation. In 2009, Thomas Joiner and his colleagues proposed the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (IPT), which focused on three main factors strongly supported by research over the preceding decade. The present study utilized a nonconcurrent, multiple-baseline, multiple-probe design as well as a one-group pretest–posttest design to examine the impact of an IPT-based training model. Participants were preservice mental health clinicians currently enrolled in Master’s degree programs. Participants completed assessments on IPT knowledge and suicide-assessment self-efficacy, and results from this study indicated a significant increase in knowledge after completion of the training, as well as a slight decrease in self-efficacy. This study suggests that suicide-assessment training, even when done remotely, can increase suicide-assessment knowledge. Future research should explore preservice mental health clinicians’ self-efficacy as well as those factors influencing the confidence these professionals feel in their assessments of risk.

Impact of Online Mental Health Screening Tools on Help-Seeking, Care Receipt, and Suicidal Ideation and Suicidal Intent: Evidence from Internet Search Behavior in a Large U.S. Cohort

10.31234/osf.io/bdpc2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nicholas C. Jacobson ◽

Elad Yom-Tov ◽

Damien Lekkas ◽

Michael Heinz ◽

Lili Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Health Screening ◽

Mental Health Screening ◽

Screening Tools ◽

Care Seeking ◽

Suicidal Intent ◽

The Impact ◽

Psychoactive Medications

Introduction: Most people with psychiatric illnesses do not receive treatment for almost a decade after disorder onset. Online mental health screens reflect one mechanism designed to shorten this lag in help-seeking, yet there has been limited research on the effectiveness of screening tools in naturalistic settings. Material and methods: We examined a cohort of persons directed to a mental health screening tool via the Bing search engine (n=126,060). We evaluated the impact of tool content on later searches for mental health self-references, self-diagnosis, care seeking, psychoactive medications, suicidal ideation, and suicidal intent. Website characteristics were evaluated by pairs of independent raters to ascertain screen type and content. These included the presence/absence of a suggestive diagnosis, a message on interpretability, as well as referrals to digital treatments, in-person treatments, and crisis services. Results: Using machine learning models, the results suggested that screen content predicted later searches with mental health self-references (AUC =0·73), mental health self-diagnosis (AUC = 0·69), mental health care seeking (AUC = 0·61), psychoactive medications (AUC = 0·55), suicidal ideation (AUC = 0·58), and suicidal intent (AUC = 0·60). Cox-proportional hazards models suggested individuals utilizing tools with in-person care referral were significantly more likely to subsequently search for methods to actively end their life (HR = 1·727, p = 0·007). Discussion: Online screens may influence help-seeking behavior, suicidal ideation, and suicidal intent. Websites with referrals to in-person treatments could put persons at greater risk of active suicidal intent. Further evaluation using large-scale randomized controlled trials is needed.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON MENTAL HEALTH AND ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS

Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University ◽

10.35741/issn.0258-2724.56.5.20 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 56 (5) ◽

pp. 213-224

Author(s):

Jung Nam Sohn

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Online Survey ◽

Common Factor ◽

National Level ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Health Promotion Program ◽

Sufficient Information ◽

Individual Level ◽

This descriptive study provides basic data for developing a mental health promotion program by analyzing the mental health status under the impact of COVID-19 and verifying the factors affecting mental health. This study aims to identify the prevalence and associated factors of mental health after the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted targeting a total of 156 Korean adults aged 19~64 years. Using the SPSS Win 19.0 program, the frequency, mean, t-test or ANOVA, X2-test, linear regression, and logistic regression analysis were performed. A total of 31.4%, 20.5%, and 12.8% of all subjects classified depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation risk, respectively, and intolerance of uncertainty affected depression (β = .51) and anxiety (β = .63). In addition to intolerance of uncertainty, self-efficacy (β = -.16) was a factor affecting depression. The variables explain 35% of depression and 44% of anxiety. Further, employment status affected suicidal ideation, which increased the risk of suicidal ideation 2.71-fold with unemployed status. This paper is novel because it seeks to find that the intolerance of uncertainty was the common factor affecting mental health during COVID-19. The early detection of risk due to COVID-19 and the intolerance of uncertainty are common factors underlying mental health issues, underscoring the need for cognitive interventions at the individual level and sufficient information and psychological support related to the COVID-19 at the national level.

The next step: a strategic focus on physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Irish mental health care

Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/ipm.2018.38 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 1-3 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. Matthews ◽

M. Cowman ◽

S. Denieffe

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Physical Activity ◽

Health Care ◽

Mental Health Care ◽

Sedentary Behaviour ◽

Mental Illnesses ◽

Multidisciplinary Teams ◽

Mental Health Nurses ◽

Health Strategy

People with severe mental illnesses have dramatically reduced life expectancy compared with the general population, which is largely attributed to physical comorbidity. Physical activity and sedentary behaviour interventions offer a safe and viable therapeutic resource for multi-disciplinary mental health care teams. The accumulating evidence supporting the role of these interventions has changed the focus of mental health strategy in some countries, with new developing roles for certain mental health professionals in this field. However, in Ireland the absence of specialised exercise practitioners places a leadership role for mental health nurses in this regard. National mental health strategy in Ireland should prioritise physical activity and sedentary behaviour interventions, make recommendations for the integration of specialised exercise practitioners in all mental health multidisciplinary teams, and recommend the provision of training and awareness for mental health nurses and other multidisciplinary professionals who are already well placed to address this issue.

Considering Mindfulness Techniques in School-based Anti-bullying Programmes

Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research ◽

10.7821/naer.2018.1.253 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 3-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Mairead Foody ◽

Muthanna Samara

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

School Bullying ◽

Duty Of Care ◽

Whole School ◽

School Based ◽

Current Psychological ◽

Schools have a duty of care to all students and to directly prevent and intervene with bullying amongst children and adolescents. The emergence of cyberbullying escalates this responsibility as the strategies that have become appropriate at national levels for bullying do not always parallel over to online environments. The impact on mental health is the most obvious concern for those responsible for reducing bullying, however, input from psychologists and mental health professionals is scant and often limited on this topic. This paper outlines what bullying is and the devastating impact it can have on the mental health of those involved. It will outline the most common anti-bullying initiatives as well as the current psychological and educational techniques, which could also be used to alleviate distress associated with bullying involvement. We will focus specifically on the role of mindfulness techniques and argue for more of such exercises to be included in whole-school bullying programmes. We conclude by arguing the need to investigate components relevant to both mindfulness and anti-bullying programmes (e.g., empathy, perspective-taking) as active ingredients for reducing the impact of bullying on mental health.

Students Responding to Natural Disasters and Terrorism

Supporting and Educating Traumatized Students ◽

10.1093/med:psych/9780199766529.003.0016 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 229-250

Author(s):

Ryan P. Kilmer ◽

Virginia Gil-Rivas ◽

Steven J. Hardy

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Professionals ◽

School Mental Health ◽

School Setting ◽

School Personnel ◽

Emotional Needs ◽

Cultural Considerations ◽

School Based ◽

This chapter seeks to help teachers and school mental health professionals understand the needs of students who have faced a disaster or terrorism and identify strategies for school-based responses. The chapter provides an overview of the effects of these events on school children and youths, including relevant developmental and cultural considerations, and the impact on the school setting. Then, the discussion emphasizes recommendations for, and possible responses by, teachers, school-based mental health professionals, and administrators. Indeed, just as these traumas can affect multiple levels of school children’s lives, the needed response of school-based professionals can be framed as multi-level, ranging from curricular modification to interventions specifically targeting youngsters’ socio-emotional needs. The sections that follow seek to inform and guide responses for school personnel and provide clear, “actionable” recommendations.

Dermatologists’ perceptions of suicidality in dermatological practice: a survey of prevalence estimates and attitudes in Austria

BMC Dermatology ◽

10.1186/s12895-020-00107-w ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ekaterina Pronizius ◽

Martin Voracek

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Atopic Dermatitis ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Suicide Risk ◽

Female Gender ◽

Treatment Quality ◽

Person Perspective ◽

Low Rate

Abstract Background Chronic illnesses belong to suicide risk factors. The goal of the current study was to estimate the rate of suicide-related behaviors in patients with atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, or acne from a third-person perspective (namely, Austrian dermatologists). Methods A link to a questionnaire specially developed for this study was emailed to 450 self-employed dermatologists in Austria, from which a total of 45 participated. Results Three dermatologists reported more than five patients with atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, or acne who committed suicide in 2017. Seven doctors treated between 1 and 10 such patients suffering from suicidal ideation. These results are suggestive for a low rate of suicidal ideations in Austrian dermatology ordinations. The majority of dermatologists in the sample (82%) knew that these patients are at higher suicide risk. 60% of participants also believed that it rather would not be a problem for them to recognize suicidal ideation. When facing patients in a suicide crisis, reported intervention steps were: referring them to a specialist in psychiatry, or having a conversation about it. In the sample, most challenging about suicide was lack of time and lack of knowledge. Dermatologists were also interested in cooperating with mental health professionals and in the implementation of new prevention strategies (e.g., suicide-related training programs). Analysis revealed that private specialists, as compared with contract physicians, had fewer patients, but spent more time with them. Yet, these differences did not appear to influence the quality of treatment they provided. Treatment quality was defined as the extent to which doctors tell their patients that additional psychological treatments could be helpful and asking them about their emotional state. Female gender and a professional background in psychology impacted positively on treatment quality. Conclusions Possible explanations for the low rate of suicidal ideations reported include the advanced Austrian health care system and dermatologists’ underestimation of the problem. Implications of the study are to promote cooperation between dermatologists and mental health professionals and to address patient suicidality from a first-person perspective (i.e., the patients).