Symposium

Suicide Prevention and Firearm Safety in Rehabilitation Patients 9578

Corresponding Presenter(s)

• 

  Katharine Gionet, PsyD

  Clinical Neuropsychologist
  Marcus Institute for Brain Health
  Thornton, CO, United States

  Slides

Presenter(s)

• 

  Hari H. Venkatachalam, MPH, CPH

  Research Health Science Specialist
  Department of Veterans Affairs
  Tampa, Florida, United States
• 

  Stephanie Oduro, OTD, OTR/L

  Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy
  Concordia University Wisconsin
  Brookfield, WI, United States
• 

  Shannon Miles, PhD

  Psychologist
  James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital
  Tampa, FL, United States

Suicide is the leading cause of violent death in the United States (Ertl et al., 2019) resulting in not only death of the individual, but distress for families, friends, and communities. Multiple rehabilitation populations are at high risk of dying by suicide, including patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, and dementia (Cao et al., 2014; Eriksson et al., 2015). This symposium seeks to provide a literature review of the current epidemiological trends in suicide due to firearms among rehabilitation patients and to provide a toolkit to help providers identify risk factors for suicide, provide language to assess suicide risk, offer resources for local policies and laws surrounding firearm storage, and present safety strategies to reduce suicidal behavior.

Learning Objectives:

• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify suicide risk factors in rehabilitation populations.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify ways to approach suicide risk conversations with their patients and the important topics to cover.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify methods for safe storage of firearms and legal options to remove firearms from the home.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify social determinants of health and behavioral health interventions to reduce suicide risk
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify suicide risk factors in rehabilitation populations.