Suicidality in older adults

Abstract

Older people have the highest suicide risk compared to all other age groups. Expressions of no longer wanting to live are also found in alarge number of older people. The reasons are usually multifactorial and sometimes go back along way in the personal biography. Limitations resulting from physical illness, mental disorders and social problems make an important contribution. Doctors are often the contact person, even though many older people avoid direct communication in this respect. It is important to perceive and actively address indirect notes, because suicidality is also changeable in very old age. Suicide prevention includes the multimodal treatment of the physical and mental illness, including the (re)activation of resources; however, it also begins in advance, when differentiated images of old age are communicated at the societal level, social participation of older people is practised and the quality of life is maintained until the end.