As in, wanting to cease living your current life and not have any more responsibilities or problems, and essentially end your session as a living human being, but without actually dying?
As in, wanting to cease living your current life and not have any more responsibilities or problems, and essentially end your session as a living human being, but without actually dying?
I’m going to print this out and carry it like a pain scale for working the ER when I’m done with medical school or make something like it. Thank you for sharing this.
It might be a little overwhelming to present this as new information to someone, especially if they’re suicidally depressed. I think triaging based on the passive/active scale is a decent way to assess danger while remaining simple. I don’t have a strong sense of privacy for myself but I would imagine many people aren’t super comfortable talking deeply about it to many people they just met. I would imagine as a HCP you could think of it like a pelvic exam. The fewer people who do their own on the patient, the better, because it’s not fun for the recipient. I say that as a former paramedic and a… well-traveled… mental health patient.
Absolutely. The idea behind the pain scale is to help someone quantify a very subjective thing. As a physician, I would keep it on hand to offer to someone if they were having trouble putting thoughts into words or if they weren’t able to quantify their suicidality.
Thank you for being understanding of these kinds of struggles.
I hope you are able to keep your compassion. Bless you.