Nurses, including nurse practitioners, play a pivotal role in suicide prevention, as a crucial member of the healthcare team. As team members, you and your clinic’s family physician are best positioned to identify those who may be at risk for suicide and able to provide or link those at risk with the care they so desperately need. It is important for all members of the healthcare team to have a firm understanding of suicide prevention, assessment, intervention, safety planning, local resources, and how to make effective referrals.
Building upon this, all members of the team need to be alert and attentive to possible risk factors, warnings signs, and reports of physiological symptoms from their patients even in the absence of any reported suicidal behaviours.
This program is supported in part by an educational grant from Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Nurses Association.