In my experience there is no such thing as an "automatic admit," but when doing a safety assessment for someone who just made a real attempt to end their life the bar is pretty high to send them out. As you listed changing medications, providing temporary observation, and making sure the patient has a real outpatient plan occur, all of which can be important. You also get to take a little more time to get to know the patient, hopefully build some semblance of an alliance, and gather collateral as appropriate. None of those things sound like "CYA" to me, they sound like providing basic care that may end up being lifesaving to someone who is in crisis.
That said, if a very involved CL team has gotten to know and care for the patient over a several week stay and a full safety assessment suggests that the person does not need to be in a psychiatric hospital then discharge can be appropriate. I have occasionally been involved in such cases. Still, when you do a cost/benefit analysis the benefit of making sure you thoughtfully maximize the person's chance of recovery (or at least decrease the odds for another near-term attempt) weighed against the cost of keeping them in the hospital a bit longer after their medical stay for a serious suicide attempt tends to skew heavily in favor of keeping the patient in most instances.
To turn the question around, why would you feel inclined to arrange a fast discharge for patients who have just tried to kill themselves?
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
What is the benefit of psychiatric hospitalization after a suicide attempt?
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire