Implementation of Suicide Care in Primary Care Cuts Rate of Suicide Attempts

MONDAY, Sept. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Implementation of population-based suicide care (SC) in primary care yields an increase in the rates of safety planning and a reduction in suicide attempts, according to a study published online Oct. 1 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Julie Angerhofer Richards, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the Kaiser Permanente Washington Heath Research Institute in Seattle, and colleagues examined the effectiveness of implementing population-based SC in primary care in a secondary analysis of a stepped-wedge, cluster randomized implementation trial. The study compared usual care (UC) and SC periods for adult patients with primary care visits from January 2015 to July 2018. Implementation of depression screening, suicide risk assessment, and safety planning was supported by practice facilitators, electronic medical record clinical decision support, and performance monitoring in the intervention.

Overall, 255,789 patients made 953,402 primary care visits during UC and 228,255 patients made 615,511 visits during SC. The researchers found that the rates of safety planning increased from 39.6 to 46.2 per 10,000 patients comparing UC with SC; in addition, there was a decrease in suicide attempts within 90 days, from 6.57 to 4.93 per 10,000 patients.

"Strategies to improve suicide risk identification and mitigation in primary care implemented alongside a substance care program are effective in reducing suicide attempts," the authors write.

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