Archive for Treatment
Talking & Walking
Posted by: | Comments“Whether on the Internet or in person, talking to someone helps. In fact, talking and walking 30 minutes a day are the most effective strategies for treating and preventing depression.”
This quote, from Dr. Oz from the Oprah site caught my attention. I have a vision that we can talk our way out of the stigma of depression. Keeping it to ourselves only makes it worse, and that can be a dangerous thing where depression is concerned. It truly is a life and death situaiton.
Click here to read all 11 points offered by Dr. Oz on dealing with depression.
Protective Factors
Posted by: | CommentsSome individuals and communities are more resistant to suicide than others. Little is known about these protective factors. However they might include genetic and neurobiological makeup, attitudinal and behavioral characteristics, and environmental attributes. According to the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide6, protective factors include:
• Effective and appropriate clinical care for mental, physical and substance abuse disorders,
• Easy access to a variety of clinical interventions and support for help seeking,
• Restricted access to highly lethal methods of suicide,
• Family and community support,
• Support from ongoing medical and mental health care relationships,
• Learned skills in problem solving, conflict resolution, and nonviolent handling of disputes, and
• Cultural and religious beliefs that discourage suicide and support self-preservation instincts, including American Indians practice of non-separation of culture, spirituality, and/or religion.
As with prevention and intervention activities, when programs to enhance protective factors are introduced, they must build on individual and community assets. They must also be culturally appropriate. As an example protective factors enhancement in any one of Montana’s American Indian communities must capitalize on the native customs and spiritual beliefs of that nation, tribe or band.
Source: http://www.sprc.org/stateinformation/PDF/stateplans/plan_mt.pdf
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults in our state (Montana), second only to motor vehicle accidents.
A third reason listed by State of Montana Suicide Prevention Plan at http://www.sprc.org/stateinformation/PDF/stateplans/plan_mt.pdf is:
Lack of mental health providers and treatment facilities
• There is a shortage of inpatient mental health treatment facilities. The availability of this vital resource is diminishing with the closure of inpatient psychiatric beds.
• There is a severe lack of appropriate comprehensive outpatient services.
• There is insufficient integration of traditional and culturally specific interventions
• Montana has a severe shortage of psychiatrists, especially child and adolescent psychiatrists
• There is a lack of physicians capable of providing appropriate psychiatric medication treatments
• There is a lack of post intervention services
This is the third of 4 posts. To see the other’s please visit the archives.
Opportunities for Prevention Activities
Posted by: | CommentsThe variations in suicide rates by age groups and gender provide a wide array of opportunities for prevention and intervention activities.
Prevention strategies can cover a wide variety of target groups (e.g., population at large, those who have ever thought of suicide as an option, those who have made previous attempts at suicide, and those in immediate crisis who are contemplating suicide as well as those who have experienced the death of a family member or close friend).
Such activities can also range from a broad focus such as addressing risk and protective factors to a more narrow focus such as preventing imminent self-harm or death.
Although the data on effectiveness of various programs and interventions is limited, certain strategies are beginning to emerge as more effective than others. Clearly, a singularly focused intervention strategy such as a crisis line or gatekeeper training program will not have a lasting impact in isolation. Each program needs to be tightly integrated and interlinked with other strategies to reach the broadest possible range of persons at risk.
The groups are futher detailed in these groups:
Youth – Ages 15 – 21
Older Adults – Ages 20 – 44
Senior Caucasian Males, Over Age 55 (this group has one of the highest rates of suicide)
Source: http://www.sprc.org/stateinformation/PDF/stateplans/plan_mt.pdf
