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Abstract
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In my role as a family nurse practitioner (NP) and nurse educator, I always thought I would be well prepared to manage any mental health problem of a loved one. In the past year, I have coordinated mental health care and advocated on behalf of my partner, who has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety related to his time in the military service.
Although we made progress on my partner's mental health in October 2022, there was often one step forward and two steps back. I recall my partner's appointment with the newly hired psychiatry resident, who did not seem to know what to do next in his treatment plan. A more seasoned psychiatrist joined the appointment, and ultimately decided to prescribe several off-label medications to treat my partner's symptoms. His PTSD, depression, and anxiety had been treated with many first-line therapies, but all failed to relieve his symptoms. A sense of hopelessness pervaded the meeting. If you have ever felt hopeless about a patient, this is the moment when your advocacy mission begins.
Shortly after that appointment, my partner attended an intensive outpatient program (IOP) for 1 day before coming home to lay on the couch for several hours. His report seemed to suggest that the IOP had been too much. He needed time to process all the traumatic experiences that had been brought to the surface in his mind that day. I understood, but I did not allow myself to see the signs that he had his own turning point in his suicidality. Six days later, he attempted suicide. He spent 2 days in a medical unit being stabilized before being admitted to an inpatient behavioral health unit.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2023b), in 2021, 12.2 million adults in the United States considered suicide, 3.5 million made suicide plans, 1.7 million attempted suicide, and 48,183 people died by suicide. Every 11 minutes, one person dies by suicide (CDC, 2023b). Suicide rates among Veterans, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and middle-aged adults are >50% higher than among the general population (CDC, 2023a).
World Health Organization (WHO; 2021) statistics show that >700,000 people committed suicide worldwide in 2019. Suicide is classified by the WHO (2021) as a global phenomenon. Globally, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 years (WHO, 2021). According to the most recent data from the National Institute of Mental Health (2020) for ages 10 to 14 years and ages 25 to 34 years, suicide was the second leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, outpacing malignant neoplasms, coronavirus disease 2019, diabetes, and cerebrovascular accidents; suicide kills more people than cancer...
Language: en |