Potential suicides 'go undetected'

Monday, 1 January, 2001, 02:25 GMT

Potential suicides are going undetected because methods for identifying
them are not up to scratch, say psychologists.

Research published on Monday suggests too much emphasis is being placed on
mental health problems.

The authors warn that many potential suicide victims are not mentally ill.

They say the common denominator in the majority of suicides is a feeling of
hopelessness - but not necessarily mental illness.

The authors say better methods of assessing people at potential risk are
needed.

For instance, tests should focus on how they deal with problems.

Each year, between eight and 14 people in every 100,000 kill themselves.

Psychologists Dr Rory O'Connor from the University of Strathclyde and
Professor Noel Sheehy of Queen's University Belfast, make their
recommendations in a paper published in The Psychologist journal.

They say evidence of hopelessness and unbearable psychological pain can be
found in more than 90% of all suicide notes.

'Identify those at risk'

They suggest future research into suicide should look at how those people
at risk can be identified, and what therapies can be provided for them, and
steer away from seeing it as caused by a psychiatric disorder.

Dr O'Connor said: "Suicide is difficult to predict and difficult to
prevent. The way we do our risk assessment is not currently sensitive enough.

"You do not need to be mentally ill to kill yourself."

He said it was important to look at the ability to solve social problems,
and see how those who could be at risk viewed the world.

"Perhaps, at a young age, you could train people in problem solving skills."

He said more needed to be done in "crisis intervention", when people attend
hospital having attempted suicide.

Guidelines needed

"Currently there are no standard guidelines in how to deal with attempted
suicides in hospitals across the UK. Those guidelines need to be drawn up,
and risk factors need to be defined," he said.

Dr O'Connor said hospitals often sent away people who had attempted suicide
if they were found not to have a psychiatric problem, suggesting they
sought the advice of their GP.

This policy had to change, he said.

Dr O'Connor said in many cases it was understandable why people felt suicidal.

He stressed: "We need to make people feel they are not abnormal."

It can be extremely difficult to predict who will take their own life.

------------------------------------------------------
Suicides in the UK and Ireland
Almost 6,700 committed suicide
There was one suicide every 79 minutes
77% of suicides are by males
868 suicides by young people - more than two per day.

1998 figures, Samaritans
------------------------------------------------------

The Samaritans agree more needs to be done to identify those at risk.

She said the risk of suicide was often not considered even among those
patients who had been identified as having a mental illness, and even once
somebody had attempted suicide care was often lacking.

She said people who went to their GP or casualty after attempting suicide
often received crisis support but no follow up care in the longer term.

"These are people who show signs they are in crisis."

'Nowhere to turn'

The other problem she said, was people who were in a severe emotional
crisis, and did not know where to turn for help.

"The Samaritans do a lot of work just raising awareness of our service.
Apart from our service, there is very little out there for people who have
that sense of hopelessness."

People ring the Samaritan helpline to talk through a wide range of
emotional problems.

But the spokeswoman added it was those who currently did not feel able to
pick up the phone, to a stranger or a friend, that the organisation wanted
to reach.

"One of the challenges for our organisation is to try and raise awareness
in a way that will help people access us before they are suicidal."

One successful innovation has been an e-mail service to the charity which
the charity said, can allow people to open up more freely than they
sometimes can on the phone.

Related to this story:
Self-harm (20 Dec 00 | Medical notes)
Depression (20 Dec 00 | Health)
Alarming rise in suicide rate (09 Oct 00 | Scotland)
Suicide risk assessed (31 Jul 99 | Health)
Drive to reduce suicides (13 Oct 99 | Health)

Internet links:
The Samaritans
MIND
The Psychologist

BBC News Online: Health
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/health/newsid_1092000/1092419.stm

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