Page 2

Roughly 2,800 completed suicides are reported each month in the U.S. Out of all these people, 10% are seen in an E.D. within a month or so of their death. Many of these patients have a chief complaint that is unrelated to suicide and, therefore, are never screened for suicide risk factors.

Think about some of the reasons why a patient might leave the E.D. still at-risk. Listen to these reasons and think about any that you can relate to.

• E.D. staff do not have enough time to conduct screenings.
• E.D. staff lack confidence in knowing when to screen.
• E.D. staff lack knowledge about specific screening tools.
• E.D. staff lack knowledge about how to proceed when a patient screens positive.
• E.D. staff feel anxiety about liability associated with at-risk patients.
• Patients do not have insurance for services related to psychiatric illness.
• There is a lack of referral resources for at-risk patients.

Lack of insurance and available resources will likely always be a barrier. However, according to government best practices, E.D. clinicians are in an ideal position to recognize warning signs and to screen patients for suicide and substance abuse risk.

You may be worried about having enough time to screen patients; you see so many patients in the E.D. and want to diagnose and treat each one as quickly as possible so you can move on to the next.

Actually, you can screen patients effectively in less time than you think. An initial 1-3 minute conversation should tell you if you need to continue with a full screening, and, if so, that can be done in 1-5 minutes. If a patient screens positive, you can do a brief intervention or make a decision to give a referral in 1-2 minutes.

This course is designed to increase your confidence and competency to know when a situation requires patient screening for suicide risk and/or substance abuse, and how to conduct the screening in a way that is both time-efficient and highly effective. We'll also discuss what to do when a patient is at-risk, and how to mitigate liability through proper documentation.