Suicide Prevention Today
Since recorded history, mental health issues and suicide have been a problem in many cultures learn more. But the shadow continues to persist, and many lives are lost every year that could be easily prevented. In 2020 suicide will be among the top nine causes for death in those aged between 10 and 64. Also, it was the number one cause of death amongst those aged between 10-14. The fact that door hardware is designed to resist ligatures adds to the difficulty of discussing this issue.
Many organizations are working to educate the public about this dark side of society. AHA also adheres guidelines developed jointly by ASHE and Joint Commission. These guidelines include making patient rooms, bathrooms, corridors, and common patient care areas “ligature-resistant.”
These guidelines are only applicable to the psychiatric departments of hospitals. They do not apply to an entire hospital. This protocol makes sense only when the behavioral bed has been filled. The patient will be placed in the general population room if this happens. The rooms are not equipped with ligatures, so the risk of self-harm is high.
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1. The hospitals play an important role in the community. The United States is home to 1,550 average suicides every year. Most suicides take place at the door of the room. Patients with mental illness are likely to check for ligatures in their environment. When patients are aware that there are products in their environment that resist ligatures, they will be less likely to self-harm.
2. Safety – When we speak about safety in the hospital, we mean the physical environment that is designed to reduce harm. Webster defines “safety”, as “the absence or avoidance of dangers, risks or injuries.” It is safe if a person enters a public room, checks the surrounding area, and finds that the doors are ligature resistant. Installing the ligature resistant hardware has paid off.
3. There are fewer lawsuits. Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of cases, medical institutions are sued every year by people who believe that a suicide could have been avoided. Unbeknownst, the 22-year-old patient was in a mental unit. She could move around freely on the ground after leaving her room. In the laundry, she attached a fitted bed sheet to a locking lock. She placed the fitted sheet above the door. Suffocation resulted. It was determined that a hospital had failed to install ligature resistant door locks in the laundry. This resulted in a $2.2million payout.
4. It would make them feel safer knowing that the hardware is ligature resistant. It could be the case that facilities which have successfully installed ligature resistant hardware into rooms for general populations adopt similar practices. This could eventually lead to stricter architectural standards when building medical centers.
Why aren’t all hospital doors equipped with locks resistant against ligatures at once?
AHA has published an article called “Ligature Risk Requirements: Suicide Prevention: Differentiating Fact from Fiction”. The article starts with: “Few medical incidents can be as catastrophic – or preventable – as the suicides of patients. Statistics show that hospital-related suicides are a serious problem. It is important that they take more effective measures to identify, monitor and eradicate the suicide threats in their environment.
Indirectly there is very little information available to explain directly why medical centres have not installed ligature resistant doors. We should take into consideration a few things.
1. Cost-Efficiency. Although ligature resistant locks are cheaper than other locks on the market, buying and replacing locks that have been installed in an establishment can be expensive.
2. Currently only beds in the behavioral sector are required to be ligature resistant. Joint Commission Regulations have been aligned to SAMHSA CMS ASHE as well as other organizations in charge of different aspects relating to today’s ligature resistance environment.
3. Sociologists define “social changes” as the transformations of social and cultural institutions by changing relationships between people. They are gradual in nature and have a lasting impact on the society. Media attention to suicide prevention has increased more than ever. Perhaps the mentality that says “let’s deny suicide exists and don’t talk about” is losing appeal due to an increase in suicides. A study found that every suicide had a lasting affect on 135 people.
The medical center still hasn’t installed door hardware that resists ligatures in all of its medical rooms. To prevent suicide, no one solution is possible. We can help by using our collective voices and compassion. We can continue to discuss this topic with hospitals in our community, leaders of these communities, and ourselves.