UNMC a part of national suicide prevention study

Suicide and mental illness are dealt with every day in the emergency department (ED) at UNMC’s hospital partner, the The Nebraska Medical Center.

“Suicide is something that flies under the radar screen, but it’s a problem that needs to be addressed,” said Wesley Zeger, D.O., assistant professor of emergency medicine at UNMC, who noted that an average of three people each day receive a primary psychiatric diagnosis in the medical center’s emergency room.

Chilling facts According to the most recent national data, suicide was: The 11th leading overall cause of death; The third leading cause of death in people aged 1 to 24; and The fourth leading cause of death in people between age 25 and 44.

In 2006, emergency departments across the nation experienced more than 500,000 visits related to intentional self-harm, and it’s estimated that between 3 and 8.4 percent of emergency department patients have suicidal thoughts.

Dr. Zeger and UNMC are part of a national study that aims to improve the detection and prevention of suicide among patients at hospital emergency departments.

The project — which is funded by the National Institutes of Health and led by the University of Massachusetts Medical School — is designed to:

• Develop and test a standardized approach to screening ED patients for suicide risk;
  
• Refine and test an ED-initiated intervention to reduce suicidal behavior among people who self-identify or screen positive for contemplating suicide; and
  
• Conduct a cost analysis to compare costs and benefits associated with ED suicide screening and intervention.