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Understanding Suicide Risk And Prevention

Author/s: 
Miller, Benjamin F., Coffey, M. J.

KEY POINTS:

  • Suicide rates have been rising during the past several years, but suicide is preventable.
  • There are many known risk factors for suicide, but the predictive utility of any single risk factor is low, requiring a focus on population-level rather than individual-level prevention.
  • There are proven processes for identifying suicide risk and intervening in health care, criminal justice, and education settings.
  • There is also a need for an enhanced data infrastructure to support suicide and self-harm surveillance systems.
  • Additional policy intervention is needed to scale and spread successful prevention approaches and to identify others. For example, policies should support removal of lethal means, increased funding for help lines and school-based programs, and integration of mental health care into routine health care.

 

Keywords 
suicide Suicide Prevention mental health public health

Health Policy Brief: Understanding Suicide Risk and Prevention

Author/s: 
Miller, Benjamin F., Coffery, M. J.
  • Suicide rates have been rising during the past several years, but suicide is preventable.
  • There are many known risk factors for suicide, but the predictive utility of any single risk factor is low, requiring a focus on population-level rather than individual-level prevention.
  • There are proven processes for identifying suicide risk and intervening in health care, criminal justice, and education settings.
  • There is also a need for an enhanced data infrastructure to support suicide and self-harm surveillance systems.
  • Additional policy intervention is needed to scale and spread successful prevention approaches and to identify others. For example, policies should support removal of lethal means, increased funding for help lines and school-based programs, and integration of mental health care into routine health care.
Keywords 
mental health suicide public health Suicide Prevention Health Policy brief

A Practical Guide To Conducting A Child Sexual Abuse Examination

Author/s: 
Gifford, J.

If you work with children, then you are seeing children who have been sexually abused. Many presentations in a health setting go unrecognised.

It is a field of paediatric practice that has changed rapidly over the last fifteen years. The evidence base is now set out by the RCPCH, giving a much clearer steer on the interpretation of physical signs. There has been a shift from examinations being provided within a child protection rota, to being carried out by specialists in a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). In many places, this has meant regionalisation of the service, and in some places, provision outside the NHS. There has been a seismic cultural change in recognition of, and response to, sexual abuse in society as a whole.

Alongside this, the internet has created new ways of grooming and exploitation, and linked together those who seek to normalise CSA offending. The challenge to paediatrics (and to safeguarding and criminal justice systems), is to meet the need that these developments have exposed.

Keywords 
child abuse Sexual abuse Examination

A Practical Guide To Conducting A Child Sexual Abuse Examination

Author/s: 
Gifford, J.

If you work with children, then you are seeing children who have been sexually abused. Many presentations in a health setting go unrecognised.

It is a field of paediatric practice that has changed rapidly over the last fifteen years. The evidence base is now set out by the RCPCH, giving a much clearer steer on the interpretation of physical signs. There has been a shift from examinations being provided within a child protection rota, to being carried out by specialists in a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). In many places, this has meant regionalisation of the service, and in some places, provision outside the NHS. There has been a seismic cultural change in recognition of, and response to, sexual abuse in society as a whole.

Alongside this, the internet has created new ways of grooming and exploitation, and linked together those who seek to normalise CSA offending. The challenge to paediatrics (and to safeguarding and criminal justice systems), is to meet the need that these developments have exposed.

Keywords 
child abuse Sexual abuse Examination
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