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Suicide rates in England have reached alarming levels. UK state officials wish to find a cure for suicidal tendencies by providing hospitals with appropriate treatments and care, to put an end to suicidal behaviour and related mental disorders.
Suicide is a matter that can be prevented, according to Nick Clegg, the Prime Minister’s aid, who added that hospitals should try finding a way to treat this type of condition.
The suicide rate in England keeps on growing. Data has shown that over 4,700 people killed themselves in 2013 a difference bigger with 6% from 2012. Statistics showed that suicide affected mainly men. But the concerns are surrounding the mental health of children as well, as psychological disorders develop at an early age.
A treatment approach made by the Henry Ford Medical Group in Detroit, in the United States, declined the patient’s suicide rate with 75% in four years. The Detroit procedure started in 2001 and is a broad programme with trained professionals who keep a close contact with the patients and provide useful information and education to the family members of the person’s who were considered to be at risk. By 2005, the suicide rate among the patients had dropped with 75% and three years later, in 2008 they managed to put an end to suicides among the patients in the programme.
The Prime Minister’s aid, is urging hospitals in England to adopt this strategy, and one of the first hospitals in England which decided to promote this plan has been Mersey Care NHS Trust from Liverpool.
The first steps will consist of creating and forming a specialized team which should be available 24/7 in case of urgencies concerning patients who are having suicidal thoughts. They should provide a better therapy care for patients in hospitals who have harmed themselves and continue to keep them under care even after they are released to go home. Create a data base of each patient, in order to understand more their psychology and what triggers the most their suicidal actions.
Medical experts at the Mersey Care NHS Trust, are trusting that the results will be noticeable within 18 months and the suicide rates among patients will drop considerably.
Hospitals should take suicide with the same seriousness they take any other type of disease and be equiped to treat it with the same intensity, as people are not called sick only when they present injuries or pain.
Specialists in the UK will develop the plan, after the Detroit model and will try a similar approach, by creating a personalized CV of each patient, starting from their past, to their tendencies and their factors of risk. This safety plan, should help medical employees to handle better each case and know what needs to be done.
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