“I Want to Live as Long as I Can”: Supporting Older Adult Clients at Elevated Risk of Suicide
“I Want to Live as Long as I Can”: Supporting Older Adult Clients at Elevated Risk of Suicide
In this course, Dr. Afroze Shaikh shares statistics illustrating the greater risk of suicide for some groups of older adults while delineating the challenges in identifying and treating them. Resources for promoting take-up of mental health services are offered.
About this course
In this course, Dr. Afroze Shaikh, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Texas at Austin) makes the case for clinicians improving their ability to identify mental health concerns in older adults, whose suicide rates are higher than commensurate with their percentage of the general population. Given that the vast majority of older adults has at least one chronic health condition and that 25% live with a mental health condition, Dr. Shaikh argues for the importance of being able to recognise the risk factors for suicide in that demographic. She details how mental health professionals can promote greater use of mental health services with older adults and outlines numerous organisations which can engage older adults and/or advocate for them.