Suicide Statistics are Staggering. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the 2004 global youth suicide base rate averaged one death every 5 minutes. An average of one adolescent in the United States dies every 90 minutes as a result of suicide, with one attempt every three minutes Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2002).
The WHO estimates suggest suicide fatalities for all ages could rise to 1.5 million by 2020, with 20 times as many failed attempts. Although these numbers are sobering, many researchers believe the actual numbers are several times greater due to the universal under-reporting of suicide and suicide attempts.
Psych-Tech was founded to combat the growing problem of violence and suicide. The Adolescent and Child Urgent Threat Evaluation™ (ACUTE™) and the Violence Ideation and Suicidality Treatment Algorithm (VISTA©) are our introductory products.
In spite of the best efforts of the research conducted over the past 50 years, suicide rates have continually increased. While most studies in this high-risk population tend to focus on depression and ideation (that is, the previous contemplation of suicide), Psych-Tech believes ACUTE™ and VISTA© contain more comprehensive and significant groupings of factors that contribute to violent and self-destructive behavior.
For example, in nearly 30% of suicide cases, the victim had no conventional thoughts of killing themselves (ideation) before the final and very rapid decent toward self-murder. Previous thoughts of suicide can be a factor, but in some cases was insignificant without other key elements.
Depression is often blamed for suicide. Although the ACUTE™ and VISTA© address depression, the actual roll of depression in suicide statistics is much less than what most people believe. The reality is that on an annual basis 99.9% of people with depression never commit suicide. Far more significant than depression, the symptoms in those at high risk of self-destruction include relatively brief, although extreme, shifts in behavior without signs of depression, ideation or any obvious or known psychiatric disorders or disturbances.
The ACUTE™ and VISTA© are specifically designed to identify these groups, among other more obvious cases of violent behavior. It is also the only assessment of its kind based completely on imperial data (that is, real case data), a significant step forward, long anticipated by leaders in the study of youth violence.
The ACUTE™ and VISTA© are designed to be used in a variety of situations and settings including emergency room, inpatient care, outpatient care, schools, and research, and can be used by a number of psychiatric/psychological personnel including physicians, psychiatrists, school psychologists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric nurses, and licensed clinical social workers. In addition, the ACUTE™ and VISTA© may be useful in assessing adverse drug reaction and in serial assessment during hospital admission, following hospital discharge or in outpatient supervision.
