Suicide of Adolescents

by Albertina Lebron, June 2014

1200 words

4 pages

essay

Introduction.

Suicide, an act of intentional killing oneself, is the fourth leading cause of death and the sixth leading cause of disability and infirmity worldwide for people between the ages of 15 and 44 (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2006). Among them, adolescents constitute the most high-risk group: according to the World Health Organization (2012), it is the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group. With the burden of self-killing has greatly increased these days:, in the recent 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide now constituting almost one million people annually dying from suicide, suicide is undoubtedly one of the greatest problems of the modern society (WHO, 2012). The main risk factors of self-killing include mental disorders such with depression and alcohol abuse in the first place (for the countries of Europe and North America), and impulsiveness (for the Asian countries) (WHO, 2012) which is historically conditioned by different social and religious connotation of suicide in these two regions of the world. 2. Importance to Nursing.Undoubtedly, the intervention of physicians and nurses is necessary both for people who have already undertaken an attempt of suicide and for those who are predisposed to it (for example, patients of medical units) on par with family support and the assistance of a psychologist or a psychiatrist. The greatly important role of nurses in suicide management is determined by the specificity of nurse-patient interaction: apart from rendering medical services, nurses’ obligation is to support their patients psychologically. Due to an extremely close link between suicidal behavior and mental disorders, suicide patient management should primarily be attributed to psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners well-prepared to assess, diagnose, and treat psychiatric emergencies (Benford, 2009, p.48) (for example, this type of help can be rendered with the help of consultation mental health services within the emergency department, or even separate psychiatric mental health outpatient clinics). However, this is not always technically possible, thus it is essential to educate non-mental health nurses on the treatment of suicidal patients (Benford, 2009, p. 49): you do not need to be a psychiatric nurse to recognize a vulnerable patient and initiate interventions that may save his life (Captain, 2008, p.50): in case of vague suicidal ideation, such intervention can be enough to overcome this condition. Synthesis of Articles. The present work is based on scientific articles about suicides of adolescents, and about the specificities of nurses’ participation in the work with suicide-prone patients. Two of them (“Suicide and Suicide Attempts in Adolescent” by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and “Assessing suicide risk” in Nursing made incredibly easy!) will be considered below in more detail. Although the first article was published in the year 2000, the information regarding the psychological side of suicidal behavior seems to be very complete and up-to-date. Talking about the picture of suicide in adolescents, it is worth saying that, as it has already been mentioned above, teenagers and young people are most prone to deliberate self-harm behavior (e.g., 17% of Canadians aged …

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