Suicide Risk in Older Adults: The Role and Responsibility of Primary Care

From the Primary Care Institute, Gainesville, FL.

Abstract

• Objective: To provide primary care practitioners with the knowledge required to identify and address older adult suicide risk in their practice.
• Methods: Review of the literature and good clinical practices.
• Results: Primary care practitioners play an important role in older adult suicide prevention and must have knowledge about older adult suicide risk, including risk factors and warning signs in this age-group. Practitioners also must appropriately screen for and manage suicide risk. Older adults, particularly older men, are at high risk for suicide, though they may be less likely to report suicide ideation. Additionally, older adults frequently see primary care practitioners within a month prior to death by suicide. A number of older adult–specific risk factors are reviewed, and appropriate screening and intervention for the primary care setting are discussed.
• Conclusion: Primary care practitioners are uniquely qualified to address a broad range of potential risk factors and should be prepared to identify risk factors and warning signs for older adult suicide, ask appropriate questions to screen for suicide risk, and intervene to prevent suicide.

Key words: suicide; older adults; risk factors; screening; safety planning.

Primary care practitioners play an important role in older adult suicide prevention and have a responsibility to identify and address suicide risk among older adults. To do so, practitioners must understand the problem of older adult suicide, recognize risk factors for suicide in older adults, screen for suicide risk, and appropriately assess and manage suicide risk. Primary care practitioners may face challenges in completing these tasks; the goal of this article is to assist practitioners in addressing these challenges.