ABSTRACT

It is known that more than half of people who died by suicide visited primary care clinics about a month before they died. It is very important to find out actively individuals at high risk for suicide for prevention because most people who have suicidal ideation do not expose it to anybody. Suicide prevention program would be successful when it is administered to people at high risk of suicide with the screening process because it would make increase the positive predictive values. Two-stage screening procedure would be effective for finding out older adults who are at high risk for suicide in the community. In other words, people who are positively depressed on a depression screening test should be screened for suicide risk. Suicide screening and assessment should be performed while taking into account the potential warning signs (e.g., suicidal thought, survivor of suicide attempt) for suicide of the high-risk group and their burden in participating in the in-depth screening procedure. Suicide risk management should be based on maximizing safety, regardless of the level of suicide risk, and especially those with a high risk of immediate suicide attempt should never be left alone. Furthermore, they should be remained vigilant in a safe circumstance until mental health services are available. Two-stage suicide screening program can be effective in finding out any suicide thoughts, plans, or intentions of the high-risk older adults that were concealed if direct questions would be given to them. It would be an effective program of suicide prevention which will be applied with no difficulty for the community-dwelling older adults by the concerned persons who are not mental health professionals.