85. Suicide Prevention: What Traditional Mental Health Care Gets Wrong

"When someone says that they want to end their life, it just means that they don't want to be living the life that they're living" (Icarus Project). It’s overwhelmingly common for people to experience a suicidal ideation at some point in their life. As a society, we have to find better ways of preventing or approaching these experiences. Currently, our traditional psychiatric approaches seem to often do more harm than good for folks in vulnerable states. In this episode, I review some of the concerning research around SI interventions, and what we can do better.

In this episode we discuss:

• myths about folks who experience SI
• why structured clinical assessments aren’t predictive of SA
• what traditional mental health systems get wrong about approaching SI
• why there are higher rates of SA after psychiatric hospitalization
• research on efficacy of emergency services
• alternative options when someone’s experiencing SI

Resources

• Institute for the Development of Human Arts : www.idha-nyc.org
• peer run respite centers: https://power2u.org/directory-of-peer-respites/
• Alt 2 Su (australia): https://alt2su-nsw.net/support-groups/
• Alt 2 Su charter https://wildfloweralliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CHARTER_alt2su_August-edits.pdf

Research:

• safety contracts https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18638213/
• assessments and lack of predictive power https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11673-022-10189-5
• post-hospitalization suicide risk https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2629522
• higher risk post emergency services https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-014-0912-2
• coercion survey https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31162700/
• harm disguised as help https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/09/suicide-police-harm-disguised-as-help/
• hospitalization both increased and decreased risk https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37851457/

Sessions & Information about the host: ⁠⁠JazmineRussell.com⁠⁠

Disclaimer: The DEPTH Work Podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Any information on this podcast in no way to be construed or substituted as psychological counseling, psychotherapy, mental health counseling, or any other type of therapy or medical advice.