Nursing Response essay Assignment on Suicide

Please respond to these two posts and write at least 100-200 words each with at least one reference per post. Thank you Post One Suicide is an act of killing oneself and relates to mental instability. Suicide ideation entails the thoughts of taking one’s life or wanting to kill oneself and can be recognized as active or passive. Active suicidal thoughts involve thinking and planning to kill oneself, while passive thoughts are not followed by a plan to take your life. Suicidal ideation manifests differently across the lifespan, as this paper observes. Suicidal ideation happens at all stages of life. It emerges differently at different levels. For instance, suicidal ideation emerges as a result of bullying, especially cyberbullying, for most children and adolescents (Ross et al., 2017). Mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, also contribute to suicidal ideation in adolescents. Developmental issues can also prompt suicidal thoughts among adolescents. For example, one may be frustrated at the delay in achieving significant milestones and think about ending their life. Children and adolescents exhibit ideation by discussing death and the possibility of taking one\’s life, having mood instabilities, and withdrawing from social interactions. However, many adolescents and children do not experience such thoughts. Suicidal ideation emerges in young and middle-aged adults due to mental health conditions. Notably, suicide and suicidal ideation are not prevalent among young and middle-aged adults as in other age groups. Nonetheless, socio-economic issues, including low income and rejection by romantic partners, exacerbate mental health conditions, contributing to suicidal ideation. Many young adults manage to activate their suicidal thoughts because they have access to the means to achieve the objectives. Guns and pills are the most common tools that young and middle-aged adults use to commit suicide. Suicidal ideation also occurs at old age. According to Carlo et al. (2019), suicide is more prevalent among elderly citizens than in other age groups and emerges from loneliness. Many older adults, especially in homes for the elderly, feel neglected by their family members and society. Thus, they prefer terminating their lives prematurely. The thoughts are more common among older adults who have lost their spouses. Physical and mental health problems also contribute to suicidal ideation in this age group. The elderly exhibit suicidal ideation through isolation from social activities, giving away precious items, speaking about death, and losing interest in all activities they previously enjoyed. Healthcare providers use various screening tools to identify suicidal ideation in individuals. The Ask Suicide Screening Questions (ASQ) and the Colombia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) are the most common screening tools for suicidal ideation among children, adolescents, and adults (Scudder et al., 2022). The ASQ assesses suicide probability by observing risk factors like family suicide history, past attempted suicide, depression, substance abuse, hopelessness, and social isolation. The factors are observed using 17 questions outlined in a questionnaire. Conversely, the C-SSRS assesses suicide probability by focusing on lifetime and recent ideation and behavior. Children between grades 10 and 12 can also be assessed using the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ), which focuses on the frequency of suicidal thoughts or risk factors for suicide. Besides, one can observe the probability of suicide among adults using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Elderly citizens have special suicide screening tools. For instance, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) contains five-item GDS-SI screening suicide prospects among older adults. The PHQ-9 is also commonly used to determine the presence of suicidal thoughts since it assesses depression. Notably, suicide assessment tools determine the signs or symptoms that can influence suicide attempts among patients. Post 2 Suicidal Tendencies Across the Lifespan Suicide occurs at all stages and ages of life. Many people who do not have the mental muscle or stability to deal with difficult situations may see it as the only way out of painful life circumstances or emotional pain. Over recent years, suicide has become a significant public health problem since its rates are consistently increasing. According to Goldman-Mellor & Margerison (2019), suicide has now eclipsed road accidents as the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 10 and 14. It is the second leading cause of death among young people between 10 and 24. Even more alarming, a survey on the suicide rates of US high school students in the past year shows at least one suicide has been reported by 7.4% of the students, and 17% of the population have admitted to at least thinking about it. On the other hand, even higher suicide rates have been reported among senior citizens, with 20.20 in every 100,000 adults aged between 52 and 59 years and 20.04 per 100,000 adults between 45 and 54 years (De Leo et al., 2020). These cases show that suicide is a tragedy for all ages and is a terrible loss to the communities, friends, and families left behind. There are major but different risk factors that influence suicide across the lifespan. Gender and age have mainly been significant factors that play an essential role in how suicide is analyzed in the human lifespan since they influence the factors that trigger suicide in people. For instance, mood disorders have conferred a greater risk for suicide attempts and ideation but affect younger people more than older ones. Teenagers and adolescents are still majorly affected by mood disorders in addition to aggressive/impulsive behaviors, conduct disorder, and comorbid adjustment that they experience during their growth stage which can trigger suicidal thoughts (Ambrosi et al., 2019). On the other hand, middle-aged people are prompted to suicide by the high social demands imposed on them through the internet, psychological changes they experience as they transition into adulthood responsibilities, slow career development, and caring for their aging parents. In older people, factors like a health crisis, atrophy; the aging of organs and the loss of function; loneliness, and fear of death, may lead to suicide attempts. However, according to Ambrosi et al. (2019). suicide attempts are more likely to lead to death in older people than younger ones. This is because they are more vulnerable and are more severely impacted by the effects of attempting suicide than teenagers or youths. To accurately assess suicide rates and prevention mechanisms, different screening tools have been used to accurately identify the factors leading to suicide in different age groups, treatment services, and provision of interventions. For instance, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a widely used screening tool for depression that also assesses passive suicidal ideation. It is used in the primary care setting to analyze if the patients have passive suicide ideation and recommend a detailed suicide screening if any risk is detected (Urtasun et al., 2019). The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) is a standardized screening tool for suicide risks that have been verified for use with adults, adolescents, and children. The tool asses both active and passive suicide ideation, suicide behavior or plan, and the patient\’s intent to act on the plan. The details gathered from the screening help professionals offer the examination an understanding of the individual\’s level of risk, the best care to provide them, and the most conducive environment to place them in without feeling restricted.