Suicide is one of the most devastating outcomes of a mental health disorder and has become an ever-increasing focus for the military population. Physicians and other providers should recognize that patients may be suffering from depression and/or experiencing suicidal thoughts. It is therefore important for providers to have tools to properly conduct a thorough assessment for suicidal risk.
 
There is no screening tool that can, by itself, identify suicidal risk in a consistent manner, but tools can be used as an adjunct to an overall assessment. Determination of risk is dependent on a thorough clinical evaluation and the use of assessment tools, taking into account historical and biopsychosocial factors involved.
 
In today’s health care environment, it may be a challenge to evaluate all of the predictive and associated risk factors for suicide, but it is an essential component of ensuring a patient’s overall health and safety. It is especially important to evaluate any modifiable risk factors and what actions can be taken to address these factors to reduce the risk of suicide.
 
Some overall risk factors include:
 

Anniversary of an important loss Demographic factors (e.g., being male and over 65 years of age) Chronic pain Co-existing alcohol or substance use Co-existing medical illness Depression Divorce

Family history of suicide Hopelessness and helplessness Lack of structured religion Living alone Prior suicide attempts Severe anxiety or agitation Suicidal thoughts (either selfexpressed or alleged by others) Unemployment

Humana Military Healthcare Services, Inc. (Humana Military) and its behavioral health care partner, ValueOptions, strongly encourage all providers to think about suicide and include an assessment as a component of your TRICARE patient evaluations and ongoing treatment. A relatively thorough Suicide Risk Assessment Form is available. Use of this tool in an overall assessment can hopefully assist in
identifying at-risk patients and getting them the treatment they need, ultimately leading to a decrease in suicides.