Introduction
Suicide is a leading cause of death in America leading to losses of family supporters and human capital for the nation. Often, signs signaling the imminent decision to take one’s life precede suicide. However, despite the red flags manifesting before the actual event, the families and friends of the suicidal patient note the red flags after the actual event takes place. Consequently, there is a tendency to blame one for missing the signs of the suicide from the onset. Whenever there is a call indicating the possibility of one taking his or her life, the first responders are expected to handle the situation with the successful handling resulting in the aversion of suicide. Often, the aversion fails leading to the second goal of handling the body and the family members who are the victims in the crime of suicide (Ting et al., 2012).
Thesis: The paramedics are rarely well equipped to handle the above roles. Training medical professionals on the required response and onsite management of the suicide crime scene will affect the outcomes of the medical interventions while reducing the trauma experienced by the families. Training ought to be integrated in the main curriculum and refresher courses.
Evidence, Analysis & Reflection
Tracking of the suicide rates indicates that the rates have been on the increase since 2005 to date. The increase can be attributed to different issues like economic pressure, mental conditions, and lack of support among others (Cebrià, et al., 2013). These causes of suicide may be well concealed such that the primary care givers or the people in the victim’s life fail to notice. Irrespective of the causes of suicide, emergency medical technicians are rarely well equipped to handle the suicide calls and attempted suicide. Suicide attempts can result in success or failure. When one attempts suicide and fails, the emergency medical professionals have to take care of both the victims and the close relatives or anyone that identified the body right at the scene. Some procedures such as cordoning the scene can be used to prevent traumatization of the individuals that may have discovered the body or the victim him or herself.
Inadequate or lack of training on the emergency response often results in the mishandling of the situation and disrespect of the victims. For instance, emergency medical services personnel may disregard the calls for help from the suicidal victims due to the common assumption that the victims are just seeking attention (Cebrià, et al., 2013). The reported red flags indicating impending suicide attempts often go unnoticed or are disregarded all together by the emergency medical professionals or any dispatchers.
One of the most witnessed trends is the assumption or assignment of familiarity to the situation based on the belief that a certain behavior is a precursor of a given condition. For instance, when a teenager calls the emergency medical services department with the information that he or she is planning to overdose on prescription pills, the common reaction among the dispatchers and emergency medical service personnel is to disregard the call and apportion it the assumption that the caller is seeking attention (Cebrià, et al., 2013).
The above assumption arises from the society since the emergency medical personnel is invariable part of the society. Common assignment of the false alarm description to suicide calls can be perceived as a predicating factor to the high rates of suicide. The familiarity with suicidal calls tends to accord the individual responders the sense of complacency (Ting, et al., 2012). Unfortunately, the emergency medical services have fallen into the trap of familiarity based on the number of false alarms that one receives.
The haste to assign meaning to the evidenced irregularities and red flags leading up to the suicide events leads to the inability of the emergency medical services to handle the calls in the most fruitful manner (Callahan et al., 2013). Lack of training in handling of suicide is one of the leading causes of ineffectiveness of the emergency medical services when responding to the suicide calls. Often the emergency medical professionals and other first responders make mistakes that result in successful completion of the suicide attempt or the traumatization of close friends and relatives of the victim.
With training, the emergency medical services professionals will be equipped with skills applied towards prevention of suicide (Ting, et al., 2012). While the calls from individuals contemplating suicide may be perceived as a cry for help, the emergency medical services ought to approach the issues with the same urgency, as they would respond to a call for an accident. Instead of assigning meaning to a situation, the emergency medical services ought to accord the situation the same weight that they would assign to any other emergency.
The need for additional training of the emergency medical services professionals comes from the current trend in the suicide rates. As pointed, suicide rates are on the increase. However, the most notable aspect about the statistics is that there is a ratio of twenty five to one in the attempted and successful suicide. This means that the attempts of suicide can be more than the actual suicide (Cebrià, et al., 2013). This means that in addition to the false alarms, there is a certain percentage of suicide that may be unnoticed.
The trend in suicide indicates that the individuals that attempt suicide may be unsuccessful on their first try. Therefore, the successful suicides were at one time mere attempts. The progress and degeneration of the situation from mere attempts to successful suicide is attributed to the lack of adequate emergency medical response or failures of the entire psychiatric system. However, the success of the treatment has to be preceded by the success of the emergency medical service personnel after their first response. Therefore, the emergency medical services have the ability to change the current suicide ratings depending on their response (Callahan et al., 2013).
Emergency medical service personnel ought to be trained on how to deal with the attempted suicide situations since in these situations; the victims include the family and friends of the patient attempting suicide (Olfson, Marcus & Bridge, 2012). Suicide is higher that the successful ones, the paramedics ought to understand how to handle the situation by assessing the victims and the patient and deciding if they need additional medical attention.
The emergency medical service professionals also need additional training on the handling of the suicide scene (Cebrià, et al., 2013). The scene where a completed suicide has occurred ought to be handled in a different manner such that the victims can avoid being traumatized. Even though the victims may beg to see the body of their beloved, medical responders ought to refrain from accepting the pleas since any viewing of the body could result in the development of new mental problems for the victims. Training areas include, on site counselling, reaction time and procedures to calls of suicidal victims, identification of red flags, and handling of the crime scene after a patient complete a suicide.
Summary and conclusion
In conclusion, the increasing trend of suicide in the country calls for the reevaluation of the current emergency medical training. Lack of training to meet the increasing incidences of suicide can be apportioned the blame for the completed suicides (Callahan et al., 2013). Training of the medical responders ought to be integrated in the curriculum. Refresher courses ought to be offered to the current workforce in emergency medical services as a way of equipping the medical professionals with the knowledge to prevent or handle suicides and attempted suicides. Regardless of the incidence, all suicide calls ought to be apportioned the same level of respect as the other emergency calls. The dispatchers and managers in charge of emergency medical services ought to avoid the lull of complacency based on the many false alarms.
References
Callahan, S. T., Fuchs, D. C., Shelton, R. C., Balmer, L. S., Dudley, J. A., Gideon, P. S., & Cooper, W. O. (2013). Identifying suicidal behavior among adolescents using administrative claims data. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 22(7), 769-775.
Cebrià, A. I., Parra, I., Pàmias, M., Escayola, A., García-Parés, G., Puntí, J., & Hegerl, U. (2013). Effectiveness of a telephone management programme for patients discharged from an emergency department after a suicide attempt: controlled study in a Spanish population. Journal of affective disorders, 147(1), 269-276.
Olfson, M., Marcus, S. C., & Bridge, J. A. (2012). Emergency treatment of deliberate self-harm. Archives of General Psychiatry, 69(1), 80-88.
Ting, S. A., Sullivan, A. F., Boudreaux, E. D., Miller, I., & Camargo, C. A. (2012). Trends in US emergency department visits for attempted suicide and self-inflicted injury, 1993–2008. General hospital psychiatry, 34(5), 557-565.
