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Suicide refers to ending the life of any individual. It is difficult to identify the exact context for the term suicide as there are different types of suicidal attempts (Turecki et al., 2019). Suicide may consider as a result of stress and thoughts that are self-destructive. Another type of suicide that is done with the help of a doctor in case of a critically sick person to die is called assisted suicide (Turecki et al., 2019). As per reports from the World Health Organization, there are around 400 million people that have problems related to behavioural problems along with mental problems and the number of people that die due to mental illness is around 900,000 every year. These mental illnesses are the same in all the nations and people suffering from mental illness always suffer isolation socially, degraded life quality and an increase in the death rate (WHO, 2021).
The following essay aims to explore and illustrate the act of suicide, its type, factors causing people to suicide, and relationship between suicide and mental health condition. At last, some measures are enlisted that could prevent people from doing suicide and the role of healthcare services is also outlined here.
Understanding Suicide
Types of suicide
According to Emile Durkheim, there are four different types of suicide;
Suicide related to the ego of a person which implies that any person who sees himself or herself out of the social circle and the ones who are unable to adjust with the social groups and generally feel alone.
Another type of suicide is taking their own life for the sake of others so that any collective motive or desire is fulfilled and this type of suicide generally referred to as Altruistic suicide.
Anomic suicide is another kind of suicide where an individual takes life due to sudden shock. For example, any financial loss which is extreme and to escape from the stress caused due to loss, the person feels safer to take his/her lives.
Another major type of suicide that enables someone to take life is when there is a strict regulation posed on somebody or any high expectation that is set for someone is fatal suicide. The examples of such fatal suicide are slavery (Robinson, et al., 2018).
Factors associated with suicide
Certain risk factors are associated with suicide is an attempt to suicide which has been made previously, another risk that is associated with any potential exposure to any suicide of friends and relatives. However, the main cause of any suicide that is being made is any violence or abuse that has happened in individual life and most importantly any mental illness such as depression in the life of any person or individual.
By taking the rate of suicide and factors associated with suicide into consideration, various studies have shown that most suicide cases are because of one or other mental health problems where depression seems to be the main cause of such suicidal attempts. The next mental health condition is bipolar disorder which has encouraged 15-20% of people to commit suicide following schizophrenia which has motivated people to commit suicide (Rimes et al., 2018). As per studies and researches, there is a connection between the rates of suicide and mental health illness. However, there can be a decline in the suicide rate if proper assistance or support id given to those who are suffering from mental illness (National Mental Health Commission, 2019).
As stated above, the main cause of any act of suicide is depression where the individual is not much connected with society and have a lonely environment which led to a low feeling of self-esteem and low mood which can eventually lead to suicidal thoughts. It also plays an important role in suicide developments where 1 of 10 men and 1 of 5 women will go for preventive measures or treatment. Schizophrenia is another mental health condition that follows depression which helps encourage suicidal thoughts and negative feelings.
Another general mental health disease that helps in the development of suicide is anxiety and compulsive disorders where mostly women are affected while most men develop the habit of drug and alcohol addiction (Rimes et al., 2018).
Mental Health condition
According to the American Psychiatric Association, any change in emotion, thoughts and actions due to distress in the social and personal life of any individual.
Types of mental health conditions
Several mental health conditions can give rise to the act of suicide when not properly diagnosed (Pfefferbaum and North, 2020). These areas below;
Anxiety
Disorder related to moods
Disorder related to eating and drinking
Psychological problems
Addiction and nervous problem
Depression
Disorder related to personality.
Relationship of suicide with a mental health condition
The main reason for any suicide is the mental health condition of a person. Mental health condition is the major cause of the suicide that has surfaced in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the different mental health conditions and their relationships with suicide (Brailovskaia, et al., 2020).
Depression as a cause for suicide
Depression is a mental health condition where a person feels demotivated and often feels left out and these symptoms can severely affect the daily life of a person and when these people left untreated it often results in suicide (Cachia, 2020).
Schizophrenia as a cause of suicide
Schizophrenia often reflects the symptoms of interpreting real-life abnormally and the person having this disease have symptoms like hallucination and delusions. Since there is no specific treatment for Schizophrenia, the rate of suicide attempts due to this disease have increased. However, this can be prevented by giving the patient a healthy way of life and by maintaining the symptoms properly.
Bipolar disorder as a cause of suicide
This kind of mental disorder refers to extreme depression where a person may lose his/her thinking capacity and have severe mood swings. And, when these patients left untreated, it may cause a negative thought about the act of suicide (Cachia, 2020). To prevent this disorder, the individual must consult a professional so that the symptoms can be managed to reduce the risk of suicide (Agape Treatment Center, 2021).
Prevention of suicide occurred due to mental health
It is difficult to prevent suicide who have series of thoughts about suicides however they should be taken care of efficiently and with a lesser time so that they can be prevented from any act which proves to be harmful to them (Chang et al., 2017). Reminding people that they can look for any help required anytime and anywhere and for this, the mental health care professional should be within the reach so that person suffering from any kind of mental disease can easily reach out to them (Milner, 2020). The psychiatric consultant, if unsure about the health condition of a person can still provide support and help and later refer to a senior or qualified consultant for further treatment. The prevention of suicide can be done with the use of medicines and drugs or therapy such as talking therapy or behavioural therapy.
It also gets complex to identify the difference between normal behaviour and abnormal behaviour therefore, it gets difficult to identify and hence the chances of suicide increases as there is no identification of the disease (Vorma, 2020). By giving attention to positive thoughts such as socializing and having fun with friends and family, focusing on trying different foods and clothes and taking a deep breath exercise can also help in shifting the mind from negative thoughts. Motivating the body and mind to perform exercise which may help in reding the stress and ultimately help in reducing any kind of negative thoughts and feelings (Kollmann, 2020).
Another preventive measure that needs to be taken is by avoiding the medicines and drugs which are illegal and alcohol that may help in the short term but it has a negative impact in the long run as it causes mental health problem such as depression and anxiety (Vorma, 2020).
Another method of prevention is to socialize and stay in touch with the world so that there is no feeling of captivity and sharing the experience of the mental illness can also help minimize the chances of suicidal thoughts (Eaves, 2020). Spending time with a person with whom you generally have fun can also help reduce loneliness. By concentrating on the positive aspect of life than regretting any past actions can help in preventing mental illness such as depression (Chang et al., 2017).
Role of Healthcare services in the treatment of mental illness
The role of professional in the treatment of mental illness is considered to be very crucial in preventing the chance of suicides as they provide support to the patients as and when required. Defining the meaning of the word "health professionals" is rather unclear which defines a variety of range of group who are qualified or trained in a particular area to provide a distinct service to prevent the act of suicide (Vorma, 2020). There is a huge availability of the menta health consultants or professional who can lend their services so that any person suffering from mental health disorder can avail the treatment opportunity by adopting a suitable action plan which can be beneficial for the patients (Eaves, 2020). There are different types of mental health professional which can help the mental health patients to overcome the disease such as;
Psychiatrist
General consultants
Nurses
Community nurses
Occupational Therapists.
Social workers
Counsellor
Friends and family
The correct prediction of suicide can be made by studying previous cases of suicide. It has been studied that the person who has met the mental health care professional after the first attempt of suicide, eventually die by attempting suicide for the second time. This implies that a person who has a history of attempting suicide are at major risk as they can try the same thing until they are successful in it. Therefore, it is necessary to have an action plan which can help prevent suicide and therefore below are some of the strategies that need to be focused on while treatment of patients suffering from any kind of mental illness (Shalaby, et al., 2020).
A caring approach should be used for people having severe mental health issues and studying the history of such patients can help reduce the chances of suicide.
There should be a proper channel of information sharing between the local authority and the agencies dealing with justice for criminals.
There should be follow up meeting every week with the patients who have recently cured of any mental illness.
Helping the patient's family in times of crisis can also help in maintaining the state of mind of the patients.
The staff associated with risk management must be trained after each couple of years.
Availability of antipsychotic medications for patients who have severe mental health problems (Shalaby, 2020).
There should be a systematic plan by which the patients are to be dealt with.
There should not be any loss of contact with the patients just cured as they are more prone and vulnerable to attempt suicide.
From the above prevention techniques, the person can be easily cured however the suicide prevention and the management of such patients is a difficult task and there is no single way where a reduced suicide rate can be achieved as the factors that are related to suicide are vast in range and are different.
Conclusion
In this summative essay, we have discussed the meaning of suicide and mental health along with the different types of these for a better understanding of the concepts. We have started with the estimates provided by WHO concerning the suicide caused due to mental health problems. This essay has laid focus on the relationship between suicide and mental health disorders as most of the suicide is caused due to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. This essay emphasizes the prevention techniques that help cure mental health issues among people. The role of healthcare professional has also been discussed as they are an integral part while treating mental health disorder patients and the strategies that are considered while treatment of mentally ill patients so that there is a reduced risk of suicide for the person dealing with any kind of mental trauma.
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