BH Version 3.0:

The New

Operating

SystemDavid w. Covington, lpc, mba

Ceo & President, RI International, Inc.

0

Not a Healthcare Issue?

Prominent suicidologists, argued successfully, albeit erroneously, that this is not a healthcare issue. They kept suicide out of the mental health Bible, the DSM, stating, “suicide is, by definition, not a disease, but a death that is caused by a self-inflicted intentional action or behavior.”

Is Suicide Really A Choice?A Vivid Memory

Pupils Dilate & Eyelids Widen

Is Suicide Really A Choice?

Depression is a disorder of mood, so mysteriously painful and elusive in the way it becomes known to the self — to

the mediating intellect– as to verge close to being beyond description. It thus remains nearly incomprehensible to

those who have not experienced it in its extreme mode.

- William Styron

What I Didn’t Do…

I finally succumbed when all my strength was fully, completely gone…

Suicide Can Be Prevented.

A. Never in Those Truly Intent on SuicideB. Sometimes, but Only in Advance of Acute

RiskC. Always, but Only in Advance of Acute Risk

D. Always, Even Up to the Last Moment

How Long Could You Endure the Ice Water…

Disease Transmission R Nought

Measles Airborne 12 – 18

HIV/AIDS Sexual

Contact

2 - 5

SARS Airborne

Droplet

2 – 5

Influenza Airborne

Droplet

2 – 3

Ebola Bodily

Fluids

1.5 – 2.5

me too

Many, many

more suicides

can be

prevented, but

it will require…

Healthcare systems

must work together

and within

communities

Utilize a systems

approach to

quality

improvement

Develop clinical

pathways for direct

care

Forbes

Magazine

2010, “The

Forgotten

Patient” –

Those at risk

of suicide

are pressed

to the

periphery

of

healthcare.

© Koren Shadmi

Suicides are

being

averted

every day

around the

world… but

the effort is

generally

individual…

not systematic.

Kevin Briggs, Guardian of the Golden Gate

Bridge

That’s also

true in

healthcare

(many lives

are saved)…

but like the

Golden Gate

Bridge, far too many are lost.

Greater suicide death risk relative to general

population

The impact of patient suicide deaths upon the healthcare

workforce is significant.

It is time…

for

healthcare

leaders to

aim for the

bull’s eye

on the

challenge

of suicide

This means

targeting

zero… which

systems do

every day

around the

world for other

complex

challenges.

None of our patients should die desperate and alone by

suicide.

Suicide

Resu

lts

Tom Insel, NIMH

Adopt the mindset.

Change the world. Zero is the only goal

we can live with.

Zero Suicide in Healthcare Atlanta Summit 2015

zerosuicide.comzerosuicide.orgThe Social Movement The Healthcare Toolkit