Rodriguez 1

Jonathan Rodriguez

Professor Massey

ENC 1101

11-25-2017

Title: Annotated Bibliography

Collier, Roger. Physician Suicide Too Often Brushed under the Rug. 2 Oct. 2017.

This is a well a conducted article that is very well written that was based on the aspect of a

newsletter. The article talks about the view point of a well-known doctor in the field of mental

health. The article goes on to state that the problem is not acknowledged, let alone addressed,

until a prominent physician or beloved colleague dies from suicide. We live with the status quo

until we cant any longer. This was stated by the author which I can agree with. As said the

article that people tend to stay quiet until its too late. It then goes on to say that in general, the

culture of medicine has put a low priority on improving mental health among its practitioners.

The aspect of suicide is very real now and this is meant to take a change the fact of the matter is

that we need to take account of this and put this into count in our field of medicine. Taking this

into consideration it will also go hand in hand with the suicide prevention programs.

Doherty, Tracie, and Jordan Devylder. Identifying Risk for Suicide. Health & Social

Work, vol. 41, no. 3, Jan. 2016, pp. 205207., doi:10.1093/hsw/hlw033.

This journal article was written by two trauma therapist who have conducted many

studies with humans mental health. In their article they talk about many aspect of the mental

health and the causes in suicide and ways they can be identified. They start off by showing us the

statistics of all the research they have found themselves but, also of other studies. Research

shows between 57 percent and 90 percent of individuals who die by suicide consulted their
 Rodriguez 2

general practitioner in the year prior to death, with as many as 45 percent seeing a physician in

the prior month but, more than half obtained health services in the four weeks prior to the

suicide. The article goes on to be based on how to work on identifying people who are most

likely to commit suicide. They state, suicide risk assessment in primary care and general

practice settings is uncommon. In studies of general practice settings, only 36 percent of

patients presenting with symptoms of major depression, were asked about suicide ideation.

Meaning that not even half of people were really asked. The suggestion given was that it would

be best if a social worker in a primary care setting can increase awareness of underlying issues,

thus leading to further effective interventions. The two end the article by saying that we need to

start understanding that most individuals who die by suicide have prior contact with primary care

physicians and other clinicians, there is a need for clinical tools to identify those at greatest risk.

Home. Lifeline, suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.

This website is for the suicide prevention lifeline. The website is a 24/7 lifeline website

for those who look or seek help or just need someone to talk to. The website advocates for those

who suffers from depression and have thoughts about suicide. The website makes it clear that

they want to be there for everyone that needs it. The website wants is to understand the issues

concerning suicide and mental health is an important way to take part in suicide prevention, help

others in crisis, and change the conversation around suicide. The website also gives facts on

signs to know when someone needs help and they want us to help each other as a community.

They want us to know that Suicide is not inevitable for anyone. By starting the conversation,

providing support, and directing help to those who need it, we can prevent suicides and save

lives.
 Rodriguez 3

Kirkwood, Ann D., and Bridget E Weller. High Evaluation of the Better Todays/Better

Tomorrows Youth Suicide Prevention Program: Increasing Mental Health Literacy in Rural

Communities.

Ann and Bridget have written this journal article to talk about the living in rural areas

have been linked to poor mental health. They say that higher rates of suicide in these areas,

particularly among adolescents. In this article they use studies from 2014 that show this

information. The study was conducted by Kann and colleagues for the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention. The result of these conclusions has been stated by both authors is the

there is a limited mental health literacy a problem caused by geographic isolation and limited

access to service providers. However, the authors go on to address the issues with the Better

Todays training. They say it was developed to educate adult gatekeepers in rural communities on

how to identify and respond to adolescents at risk for suicide. In the end they conducted test with

the result showing that individuals who participated in Better Todays reported improved mental

health literacy. Now do to this type of studies the authors of the article go on to suggest that

trainings and customized program content may be an effective way to improve mental health

literacy in rural communities.

Matthay, Ellicott C., et al. Changing Patterns in Rates and Means of Suicide in

California, 2005 to 2013. American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 3, 2017, pp. 427

429., doi:10.2105/ajph.2016.303624.

The authors of this article talk about the suicide rates and patterns in the state of

California. The article starts by stating that in the USA from 1999 to 2014 the rate has increased

in numbers like never. The rate increased by almost 30 percent. Accounting for more than 40 000

deaths in 2014. They also go on to state that some reasons for this can be the rising prevalence of
 Rodriguez 4

long-term morbidity, physical disability, and pain; growing rates of psychological disorder and

substance abuse; declining job prospects; and increasing social conflict, income inequality, and

racial inequality. Furthermore, it goes on to state facts about 2005 to 2013. The information they

give shows that between 2005 and 2013, there were 30,029 suicides in California. Suicides

occurred in all subgroups, but the distribution was extremely heterogeneous. The suicide rate

increased 12.6% over the study period, from 11.2 to 12.6 per 100,000 population. In conclusion,

the article shows how California has been impacted but, it may not be the only state to suffer this

type of numbers.

Mueller, Anna S., et al. Suicide Ideation and Bullying Among US Adolescents:

Examining the Intersections of Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity. American

Journal of Public Health, vol. 105, no. 5, 2015, pp. 980985., doi:10.2105/ajph.2014.302391.

The article was written by well experienced people in the public health system. In this

article the authors wrote about the studies that they conducted on the suicide rates within

different aspects. The aspects were based on race, gender and sexual orientation. Their study

showed that all these aspects brought with it bullying, name calling and etcThe study also

showed that the youth said that bullying was the main reason for their depression and the idea of

suicide. Race really wasnt the main reason for the bullying neither gender but, mostly was

because of the sexual orientation. We also see that in the article because they show all the

information in graphs that was put together in the studies they conducted. Taken as a whole, their

findings suggest that being bullied is associated with higher odds of suicide ideation, regardless

of an adolescents gender, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation. However, they did not find any

significant interactions in the relation between bullying and suicide attempts by race/ethnicity or
 Rodriguez 5

gender. In the end study of the intersection between race and sexual orientation also resulted in

important new insights found in their studies.

Regehr, Cheryl, et al. Suicide Risk Assessment: Clinicians Confidence in Their

Professional Judgment. Journal of Loss and Trauma, vol. 21, no. 1, 2015, pp. 3046.,

doi:10.1080/15325024.2015.1072012

The journal article I picked for my choice is a very informative article. By far was the

article that gave me the most information on my topic. The authors talked about suicide beyond

the USA grounds. Every year, approximately 1 million people die from suicide, resulting in a

worldwide mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds is stated by the

authors. They also gathered information stating that Most people who take their own lives have

contact with health care and mental health professionals shortly before their deaths. An

Australian study using coroners data revealed that 79% of people had contact with health care

professionals in the three months before their deaths by suicide which we see in my other citing

also state the same information. They also go on to write and talk about the information of the

suicide test and the results were as such. Similarly, 62.9% of participants believed that the

depressed middle-aged woman (Margaret) should be hospitalized whereas 37.1% believed she

did not require hospitalization. The study was based on a woman who was depressed and had

suicidal thoughts and people were asked for their judgement on the women. The authors then

state that suicide is a serious topic and it needs to be taken very serious if not numbers will keep

going up.

Sullivan, Erin m, and Joseph l Annest. Suicide Trends Among Persons Aged 1024

Years United States, 19942012. 6 Mar. 2015.

 Rodriguez 6

In this news article the authors are trying to bring the case of suicide to light. Thus, they

explain the impact of in the US. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among persons aged

1024 years in the United States and accounted for 5,178 deaths in this age group in 2012. The

news article also states that among persons aged 1024 years, suicide rates are higher in males

than in females. Suicide rates by suffocation have been increasing among females in this age

group since the early 1990s. this is a number that also keeps going up in todays generation. As a

result the use of suffocation as a method of suicide among young persons has increased.

Professionals who work with young persons and their families need to be aware of the trend in

this highly lethal method when asking about suicide plans and when working to reduce suicide

risk.