By Teresa Carr
Administrative Assistant
Medicare Check-Up Days 2022. On Tuesday, September 20 the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program (OSHIIP) Counselors will have a presentation at the Senior Center. No appointments necessary. Presentation begins at 1:00pm. Be sure to attend to learn ways to stay informed, stay healthy and save money.
Information from Kelle Winkle, MSN, RN – ACRMC, Senior Life Solutions – Suicide Prevention Month. In this month where we help so many, we cannot lose focus on those that lost their lives before they could get the help they needed. Sobering data was released this year by the Trust for America’s Health Foundation on death by suicide, drug, and alcohol abuse. In 2020, 186,763 lives were lost to suicide, drug, and alcohol abuse which was an increase of 20% from 2019.
Unfortunately, unlike a physical illness where you can perform an x-ray to determine if your arm is broken, there is not one way to ensure we have identified someone at risk for death by suicide. Arming ourselves with the most up to date evidence on how best to identify warning signs and intervene is imperative in the effort to stop death by suicide in our nation.
In 2011, after realizing that only two interventions (brief intervention and contact) had been empirically proven to prevent suicide and only one modality of therapy (DBT) had been shown to prevent suicide in more than one trial, these researchers wanted to push to learn more about identifying an individual at risk for suicide. They developed the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130348/). The theory consists of three parts:
· Thwarted belongingness: feeling like one does not belong; experiencing chronic loneliness and the lack of reciprocally caring relationships
· Perceived burdensomeness: the perception, not the reality, that one is a burden and others would be better off without them
· Acquired capability to enact lethal self-harm: fearlessness about dying and pain tolerance
These feelings can be seen across all age ranges, but with the highest death by suicide rate being in our nation’s elderly, you can see how some of the life changes that occur with aging could lead to people to experience an increase in these feelings.
The National Council on Aging recently made these suggestions for increased risk for suicidal thoughts in the elderly (https://ncoa.org/article/how-to-respond-to-suicide-risk-in-older-adults):
· Social isolation and loneliness (e.g., living alone, being a widow/widower, low social support)
· Physical and mental health problems
· Chronic pain
· Stressful life events (e.g., financial discord, death/divorce)
· Need for home-based care, loss of functioning with activities of daily living (ADL)
Just A Thought: “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ~Leo Buscaglia