Suicide in Children and Youth While it is well known that adolescents can struggle through turbulent periods of mental health, although very rarely do we consider the suicide risk of younger children. In fact, in Canada the coroner can’t declare a suicide of anyone aged 9 or under (Statistics Canada, 2014) these deaths are likely…
Tag: risk factors
Suicide in Hospitals and Inpatients
Note: I originally planned to write an article entitled “Suicide in Special Populations”, but as I began doing some research, I realized that each population was so filled with research that each would be better split up into individual articles. So this is the first of the series, that I hope will contain suicide in…
My Friend Is Suicidal – What Do I Do?
If you’re reading this, than you may have a friend who has said that they’re feeling suicidal, or who you think might be feeling this way. This can be a very scary place to find yourself. When we think our friends are in danger, it can bring up a lot of very strong feelings, including:…
Recognizing Suicide Lethality (RSL) Scale
The Recognizing Suicide Lethality (RSL) scale, also called the “Thirteen Questions on Successful Suicide” is used to identify whether a person who may be exposed to suicidal individuals (such as a physician, social worker, minister, or educator) can recognize the signs of suicide. The questions in the RSL are based off the factors identified in the Suicide Potential Rating Scale (Holmes and…
Suicide Risk Factors, Warning Signs and Protective Factors
Suicide risk factors are those characteristics a person may possess that can increase their suicide risk on a “macro level.” Merely having these things indicates a person may be at an increased risk of suicide over their lifetime, but does not indicate that they are going to kill themselves soon, or even at all. Suicide…