Open AccessOvercrowding as a possible risk factor for inpatient suicide in a South African psychiatric hospital
Author(s) -
Christoffel Grobler,
Johanita Strümpher,
Ruwayda Jacobs
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
south african journal of psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.425
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 2078-6786
pISSN - 1608-9685
DOI - 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v21i3.759
Subject(s) - overcrowding , psychiatry , risk factor , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , commit , medicine , psychiatric hospital , suicide prevention , poison control , psychology , clinical psychology , medical emergency , database , computer science , economics , economic growth
About 4% of all suicides are estimated to occur while being an inpatient in a psychiatric facility. Staff generally assume that an inpatient suicide reflects a failure on their part to recognise the patient’s suicidal intent and whether it could have been prevented in any way.Inpatients who commit suicide do not seem to be a homogenous group, but some risk factors have been identified, including being young, single, male, unemployed, abusing substances, schizophrenia and personality- and affective disorders. Number of admissions in the previous month also appears to be a risk factor.When the numbers of inpatients are high, more violent incidents occu. Although literature presently do not suggest an association, overcrowding in psychiatric inpatient wards should be considered a risk factor for inpatient suicide