Abstract
Assistance to suicidal patients is problematic both at the hospital and community care level. Inadequacy of facilities, pressured personnel, long waiting time, and professional and social stigmatization are just some of the many issues that interfere with successful treatment. The goal of this paper is to present the functioning of the Life Promotion Clinic (LPC), Australia, and describe its users. The LPC is the first specialized outpatient service in Australia dedicated to the treatment of individuals with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. A description of the service and characteristics of its clients (demographic, psychopathology, risk of suicide) are herein presented. Data were collected for 63 male and 175 female patients who attended the LPC over a three-year period. Patients were mostly single females, aged up to 44 years, poorly educated, unemployed or on a pension/benefit. The majority of patients reported at least one suicide attempt, severe depression and anxiety scores, moderate-severe feelings of hopelessness, and high impulsiveness scores. Compared to females, male patients presented with more active desire to kill themselves and higher level of suicidal ideation. We can conclude that establishing a specialist service for treatment of individuals at increased risk for suicide requires consideration of both patient and clinicians needs. The LPC presents an innovative model of community service, capable of engaging patients with serious mental health issues, while making the service accessible to people from various social categories.
Highlights
Perceived need for treatment and attitudinal/cultural barriers in help seeking, prevent many people, especially males, from receiving treatment after a suicide attempt.[1]
These perceptions were supported by Lizardi and Stanley,[4] who found that the transition from emergency to outpatient services is a crucial but often neglected step in treating suicidal people
The rationale for establishing the Life Promotion Clinic (LPC) came from increased demand from community, government and non-government organizations for a specialized clinical service to provide comprehensive treatment to suicidal people
Summary
Perceived need for treatment and attitudinal/cultural barriers in help seeking, prevent many people, especially males, from receiving treatment after a suicide attempt.[1]. Difficulties with engaging in treatment are likely to be complicated by high risk of repeated attempts after discharge.[5] General hospital staff most often hold negative attitudes towards people who self-harm.[6] These attitudes (often charged with feelings of irritation, anger, frustration, and helplessness) were found to be expressed towards patients who repeatedly self-harmed − a group at highest risk of subsequent suicide.[7,8] Notwithstanding these issues, the majority of people with suicidal ideation or behavior are willing to accept help in managing and minimizing their risk of suicide.[3] Recognizing the need of suicidal individuals for specialist care, and considering that history of suicidal behavior is the most important predictor of subsequent self-harming behaviours,[7] the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP) established the Life Promotion Clinic (LPC). The aims of this paper were to present the model of care of the LPC, and to describe its patients
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