The approaches of prehospital emergency care professionals to suicide cases in İzmir

Introduction: Suicides constitute a substantial part of deaths due to violence and are considered as a preventable public health concern. It is known that all health care professionals take a significant part in suicide prevention and they bear important occupational, ethical and legal responsibilities while approaching suicide cases. The staff responsible for prehospital emergency medical services might be the first health care professionals to approach suicide cases. Importance of proper attitude and approach towards these cases in suicide prevention is emphasized in plenty of sources. This study intends to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of prehospital emergency care professionals on suicides and suicide attempts, seeks to establish the problems they encounter while they are fulfilling their occupational, ethical and legal responsibilities. Methods: In our cross sectional study, a 25 question survey was delivered hand out by 464 emergency care professionals based in emergency care stations and command & control center in İzmir city centre, under Ministry of Health, İzmir Provincial Directorate of Health, Emergency Medical Services Division. Demographics such as age, gender, occupation and working year were independent variables; survey questions regarding knowledge on suicide, approach towards suicide, legal and ethical responsibilities were dependent variables. Data management and analysis were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 15). Results: Average age of survey participants was 33.3±10.3, 59.9% were female, average working year was 10.9±8.2 years. 44% of respondents were emergency medical technicians, 19.8% paramedics, 14.7% medical doctors, rest were nurses and drivers. It was observed that 81.4% of the participants did not attend any training a continue proffessionel development training on suicide, 53.4% did not feel competent approaching suicide cases, 63.5% had neutral or negative feelings towards patients who attempted suicide. Regarding approach towards suicide cases, %79.35 of the participants were aware of their legal and ethical responsibilities. It was noted that majority of respondents did not agree with or did not have an opinion on questions concerning knowledge on suicide, risk factors and approach; participants most frequently encountered problems with patient, patient's relatives, police, gendarme and crime scene investigation team. Attending a continue proffessionel development training and a longer work expenence caused statistically significant difference in answers to knowledge and attitude questions (p < 0.05). Discussion: Consistent with other local and foreign studies, our study also revealed prehospital emergency care professionals may have neutral or negative attitudes in their approach to patients who attempted suicide. In our study, it is thought that prehospital emergency care professionals experience problems approaching and managing cases who have attempted suicide and these problems stem from lack of knowledge. Conlusion and suggestions: Considering 112 emergency care professionals might be the first to approach attempted suicide cases and bearing in mind their important roles in preventing deaths due to suicide, we have come to the conclusion that pre-graduate and post-graduate training on this subject is required.