Population metrics for suicide events: A causal inference approach.

Large-scale public health prevention initiatives and interventions are a very important component to current public health strategies. But evaluating effects of such large-scale prevention/intervention faces a lot of challenges due to confounding effects and heterogeneity of study population. In this paper, we will develop metrics to assess the risk for suicide events based on causal inference framework when the study population is heterogeneous. The proposed metrics deal with the confounding effect by first estimating the risk of suicide events within each of the risk levels, number of prior attempts, and then taking a weighted sum of the conditional probabilities. The metrics provide unbiased estimates of the risk of suicide events. Simulation studies and a real data example will be used to demonstrate the proposed metrics.

Chaplaincy Encounters Following a Suicide Attempt.

This descriptive study examines the provision of chaplaincy services to veterans who sought health care at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center following a suicide attempt. A system-wide VA database of suicidal behavior was used to identify a cohort of n = 22,701 veterans who survived a suicide attempt. Next, an electronic review of VA clinical records found that n = 7,447 (32.8%) received chaplaincy services in the 30 days following their attempt. Of this group, the overwhelming majority of first chaplaincy encounters took place in in-patient settings: n = 6890 (92.5%). First chaplaincy encounters most often occurred 1-7 days following the attempt: n = 5,033 (67.6%). Most chaplaincy service users had only one chaplaincy encounter: n = 3,514 (47.2%). The findings suggest that, at VA Medical Centers, a relatively sizeable percentage of suicide attempt survivors have contact with chaplaincy services. Additional research is needed to ascertain if chaplaincy services yield any therapeutic benefit for this group.

Use of ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code V62.89 (Other Psychological or Physical Stress, Not Elsewhere Classified) Following a Suicide Attempt.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the demographic, diagnostic, and service characteristics of veterans who received services for "other psychological or physical stress, not elsewhere classified" (ICD-9-CM V62.89) in the month following a suicide attempt. METHODS: An electronic search of a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) suicide event reporting system identified 22,701 veterans who were survivors of a suicide attempt. Their clinical service encounter records were extracted from a VHA administrative database to identify those who received services related to V62.89. RESULTS: Services related to V62.89 were provided to N=2,173 (9.6%) of the sample. Chaplains were the predominant service provider, identified in N=1,745 (80%) of the service encounters. Differences were noted between those who received services related to V62.89 from a chaplain or from another service provider. CONCLUSIONS: V62.89 appears to be a focus of clinical concern for some veteran suicide attempt survivors. Additional research is needed to better understand any implications for suicide "postvention."