What to Know If a Loved One is At Risk for Suicide
How to talk about suicide
Each year, over half a million people show up at emergency rooms because they are contemplating suicide, or have already hurt themselves. In the year that follows this visit, these people are at very high risk for completing suicide.
This is a nightmare scenario for anyone who care about these patients. Family and friends will carry the burden of wondering what their role is in preventing tragedy in these peoples’ lives (I will refer to you as “family”, but this includes close friends).
Because this topic is so important, I think it deserves some guideposts for those involved who care about people at risk for suicide. There are of course other reasons to be concerned about suicide than an ER visit. Our purpose here is to review how to approach things after some event, like an ER visit, has already happened.
The first such guidepost is to understand what your role is as someone close to a person at risk for suicide. This is relevant at the very beginning as merely having a mental disorder puts you at greater risk of suicide, but not all people’s risk is one that needs active attention. So how do you figure out whether or not your loved one is at risk? You ask the main clinician. Anyone can look up risk factors, but your concern is one…
