This query was created as a collaboration between the ISDS Syndrome Definition Committee (SDC) members with input from the CDC, Division of Violence Prevention. The query includes keywords and discharge diagnosis codes (ICD 10, ICD 9, and SNOMED) for self-harm, suicide ideation and suicide attempt. The query has been evaluated using national and local data from several states and counties.
Suicide
Description
Suicide is a growing public health problem in the United States. From 2001 to 2016, ED visit rates for nonfatal self-harm, a common risk factor for suicide, increased 42%. To improve public health surveillance of suicide-related problems, including SI and SA, the Data and Surveillance Task Force within the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention recommended the use of real-time data from hospital ED visits. The collection and use of real-time ED visit data on SI and SA could support a more targeted and timely public health response to prevent suicide. Therefore, this investigation aimed to monitor ED visits for SI or SA and to identify temporal, demographic, and geographic patterns using data from CDC's National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP).
Objective: To describe epidemiological characteristics of emergency department (ED) visits related to suicidal ideation (SI) or suicidal attempt (SA) using syndromic surveillance data.
In 2015, Idaho was among the top 10 states for suicides in the United States. Suicide as the cause of death for teens and young adults in Idaho was exceeded only by accidental deaths. On average, one suicide death occurred among all ages every day. 1 Among the seven Idaho local public health districts, Panhandle Health District (PHD1) in northern Idaho had the highest suicide rate, at 28 deaths per 100,000 population.
Description
Veterans accessing Veterans Affairs (VA) health care have higher suicide rates and more characteristics associated with suicide risk, including being male, having multiple medical and psychiatric comorbidities, and being an older age, compared with the general U.S. population. The Veterans Crisis Line is a telephone hotline available to Veterans with urgent mental health concerns; however, not all Veterans are aware of this resource. By contrast, telephone triage is a national telephone-based triage system used by the VA to assess and triage all Veterans with acute medical or mental health complaints.
Objective
To characterize Veterans who call telephone triage because of suicidal ideation (SI) or depression and to identify opportunities for suicide prevention efforts among these telephone triage users using a biosurveillance application.
Description
In 2015, suicide was the 8th leading cause of death in Salt Lake County, Utah, and has recently been identified as a priority public health issue. For suicide, suicide ideation and suicide attempts surveillance, Salt Lake County Health Department staff use National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) mortality data to monitor historical trends and vital records mortality data and ESSENCE ED encounter morbidity data to monitor trends and populations in real time. To improve surveillance and better identify populations at higher risk of suicide, we tested whether we could retrospectively identify residents who died from suicide and visited an ED in the year before death.
Objective:
To explore the use of ED syndromic surveillance data to retrospectively identify individuals who died from suicide and visited an ED before death in order to improve suicide surveillance and inform planning and prevention efforts in Salt Lake County, Utah.