Preventing Suicide Among the Elderly
JF&CS developed a life-changing initiative to combat suicide among seniors and the program is saving lives already. The project provides suicide assessment and intervention training for JF&CS home health nurses, aides, and personal care attendants, addressing this unmet need in the high-risk senior population.
Clinical Director of Senior Services Marsha Frankel said, “This is an important program. It will increase nurses’ ability to recognize geriatric depression, and teach them how to make appropriate referrals, how to get someone to accept help and how to follow up.”
Consider these startling statistics: the suicide rate is highest among people over 65 years old. Major depression is twice as common in elderly patients receiving home care as in those receiving primary care. One in seven home care clients are depressed and research indicates that few will get over their depression without professional help. Yet sadly only 12% receive adequate treatment. A recent study also indicates that many home health nurses are unable to correctly identify depression among older patients.
Training had an immediate impact. Two days after the first training, Tatiana Yakimova, a JF&CS nurse, called to refer a 91-year-old woman living alone in her own apartment in Brookline. The client was being seen by JF&CS VNA after three falls and a hospitalization. She acknowledged being depressed and socially isolated. Tatiana felt that her complaints of pain were magnified by her feelings of distress over the aging process and her limitations. She said, “I felt a lot of sadness inside her and I involved social work to prevent her decline.”
Fortunately, the woman was agreeable to treatment and responded positively to social work interventions. JF&CS social worker Selma Mirsky said that when she first met with the client she felt that her life was useless. “She talked about ending her life.” Selma was able to reconnect her with her support system, including two devoted nieces, and “little by little she was able to see that she was important to them.” As the woman’s emotional pain eased, she renewed her interest in life and has even decided to walk to activities at the near-by senior center.
The Suicide Prevention program stemmed from adapting and expanding curricula developed and tested by the Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry. In addition to translating information into Russian, the program developed culturally appropriate materials for the Haitian and Chinese communities. Marsha said, “The stigma attached to depression and treatment issues are different for each culture.” Learn more about the Geriatric Institute.