Symposia
Suicide and Self-Injury
Melanie Hom, Ph.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Stanford University
San Jose, California
Ian Stanley, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Staff Psychologist
Boston University School of Medicine & National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System
Boston, Massachusetts
The connection of individuals at elevated suicide risk to mental health care services represents a critical component of suicide prevention efforts (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2017). However, research has consistently revealed that a substantial portion of individuals at elevated suicide risk are not interfacing with mental health care services (Piscopo et al., 2016). This presentation provides recommendations for enhancing the assessment of help-seeking and mental health service use within the context of suicide prevention research. We discuss evidence-based and theoretical rationale for improving current approaches to assessing help-seeking and mental health service use among at-risk individuals. We offer recommendations within three domains: (1) consideration of the spectrum of connection to care (i.e., considering seeking care to engaging in care until mutually agreed upon termination), (2) assessment of the degree to which mental health care services seek to and effectively target suicidal symptoms, and (3) evaluation of the sources and types of treatment and care sought and received by at-risk individuals (e.g., hospitalization, peer support group, or outpatient individual or group therapy; inpatient or outpatient services). To further our understanding of how to bolster connection to care and improve experiences with mental health care services among individuals at elevated suicide risk, it is imperative that stakeholders precisely capture the degree, efficacy and effectiveness, and nature of care sought and received by individuals. In so doing, research gaps might be better identified and, ultimately, mental health care services might be better leveraged as tools to prevent suicide and to support individuals in creating lives they perceive to be worth living.