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Abstract
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Suicide is a leading cause of death internationally, and self-harm significantly increases the risk of suicide (Hawton et al., 2015; World Health Organization, 2014). To tackle this global health crisis a multisystem, inter-faceted, joined-up approach across health and social care, education, judicial, financial, and voluntary sectors is needed. Within this, the health setting of primary care holds unlocked potential for suicide prevention (Michail et al., 2020). In this editorial, we outline the importance of focusing on primary care for suicide prevention and introduce a new special interest group for the International Association for Suicide Prevention.
What Is Primary and Community Health Care?
The World Health Organization defines primary healthcare as a whole-society approach to health and well-being centered on the preferences and needs of individuals, families, and communities, which focuses on the interrelated aspects of physical, mental, and social health and wellbeing (World Health Organization & UNICEF, 2018). This approach needs to encompass the continuum of healthcare - from health promotion and prevention, to treatment and rehabilitation - within people's daily environments (World Health Organization & UNICEF, 2018).
Primary care services often provide a first point of contact in a health system and generally include the services of general practice, community pharmacy, as well as dental and optometry teams, although this may differ across lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs; Charles, 2019). Community health services strive to support people of any age and often with complex multiple problems in their homes and communities. They closely complement primary care services and cover a diverse range of activities that can be both difficult to define and can vary across regions and countries (Charles, 2019). In the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom (UK), examples of community health services include community occupational therapy and physiotherapy, health visiting and sexual health services, nursing homes, school nursing, the voluntary sector, and caring services (Charles, 2019)...
Language: en |