A new network of eight hospitals nationwide will collaborate on and test methods to detect suicide risk in patients and connect them to the care they need. Research shows nearly half of people who die by suicide interact with the healthcare system in the month before their death, providing an opportunity to save lives. Julie Goldstein Grumet, director of the Zero Suicide Institute at the Education Development Center, says healthcare providers will seek to detect suicide risk and collect data, as they would with other health concerns.
“We get our blood pressure and our weight just to kind of check there’s not an underlying issue, and we need to do the same when it comes to suicide. We need to ask at every visit, every person.”
Grumet says when interventions are used properly, hospitals can reduce suicide rates of people in their care by up to 75%. She says it’s always important to ask people directly if they are considering suicide, and advise them to contact the nationwide Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988.
