Coastal focus aims to improve suicide prevention
With Mental Health Week right around the corner (May 4 – 10), this week’s view of Coastal’s June 2015 Accreditation preparation is focused on suicide prevention and the successes and challenges our staff and physicians face when treating patients experiencing suicidal ideation.
“Based on what we see in action, we think our staff and physicians do a good job of conducting the patient assessment and taking the time to prepare a care and safety plan for the vast majority of our affected patients,” says Nora Koros, Powell River Manager of Mental Health & Addictions and Program Lead for the Suicide Prevention ROP (Required Organizational Practice).
By its nature, this type of safety planning is a collaborative process that actively involves the patient and possibly family members. A well-prepared safety plan contains a list of potential coping strategies as well as lists of individuals or organizations that the patient can contact in order to help themselves.
This type of collaborative process is also an excellent way to demonstrate that we meet another long-standing Accreditation Canada ROP around engaging patients and families to play an active role in their own safety. VCH’s Patient and Family’s Role in Safety ROP Fact Sheet is a helpful resource in ensuring we’re treating patients and their loved ones as partners in care and asking them to play an active role in their care and safety. This covers a variety of practices, from how we interact with our patients and their families to how we’re able to support them with printed or follow-up materials rather than only verbal direction.
Challenges to suicide prevention
“While our assessments are typically good, where we face challenges is during our care transitions,” says Nora. “Documenting the risks and ensuring that our incoming care providers are aware of these types of risk is vital. We’re making progress on this and will be better able to do this when we get the new Cerner system as part of CST.”
Another key practice has to do with care team members conducting regular reviews and monitoring of the patient’s risk factors. Depending on the patient’s condition, their care needs can change fairly rapidly, which is why ongoing reviews are also key to successful treatment.
Read the full ROP fact sheet
For more information on the best practices around suicide prevention, check out the new Suicide Prevention ROP Fact Sheet that includes a checklist of what compliance around each of the elements above looks like as well as links to other resources and sample questions from surveyors.
Spread the word
Share this story and the Patient and Family Centred Care info with your team by email and by posting it in your lunchroom.
More stories in this series:
- Preventing pressure ulcers the key to one Coastal ROP
- Accreditation 2015: Are you prepared for questions about falls?
- Preventing VTE a key focus for Coastal Accreditation efforts
- Med Rec another key focus for Coastal accreditation preparation
- Increased focus on patient-centred care being brought to Coastal by Accreditation Canada surveyors
Have questions about Coastal Accreditation 2015?
Contact: Jody Sydor Jones
Coastal Director, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety
Email: Jody.SydorJones@vch.ca
Visit the Accreditation site on VCH-Connect