An Open-Minded, Skeptical Look at the Success of “Zero Suicides”
We eliminated suicides! That was the claim made with the support of pharma by a Henry Ford Health System administrator who was on the job market.
September 10 2023 Introduction to a revived Mind the Brain, An open-minded, skeptical look at the success of “zero suicides”
“If depression care were truly perfect, no patient would die from suicide.'“—M. Justin Coffey, MD and C. Edward Coffey, MD
“Zero suicides” is false if it is claimed to be an actual realtime achievement in a health care system in Michigan, as this Substack article shows.
The slogan“Zero suicides” is a bad idea if it is taken too seriously even as an aspirational goal. Inevitably suicides will occur, and staff will be unfairly disciplined when a mental health setting loses a patient to suicide.
Surviving family members and friends will soulsearch after a suicide and come up with something that if they had done differently, their loved one would still be alive.
Be wary of anyone claiming that they will end suicide. They are fooling themselves or they may be trying to fool you.
I believe this was among the top five of my blog posts ever. A tweet about it was enough t…