Prevention and detection of suicidal ideation in school: a bibliographic review

Identifier:  TFG:2488

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG2488

Authors:  Benach Gil, Anna

Abstract:
Introduction: Suicide is an important public health problem in the global context, being one of the main causes of death in adolescence in Spain. Despite the relevance of the problem in this especially vulnerable stage of life, in our territory it is not possible to find any specific protocol aimed at adolescence. The Primary Care nurse within the programs of prevention and health promotion in schools is the ideal professional to detect early suicidal ideation avoiding a fatal outcome and should have tools to identify and assess the presence of risk factors. Objective: To identify the most appropriate risk factors and assessment tools for suicidal ideation so that the Primary Care nurse can apply them to the adolescent population and detect the ideation and risk of suicide in the classroom and/or consultation. Methodology: A bibliographic search is carried out in the databases MEDES, Pubmed, Cuiden and Cinahl using the key words: "suicide", "adolescence", "risk", "nursing", "school nurse" and "suicidal ideation". A total of 21 articles are obtained that met the inclusion criteria. Results: The studies indicate the presence of several risk factors, highlighting within these the aspects related to mental health, the presence of sexual abuse and early relationships, among others. Regarding the rating scales, the largest number of these are oriented to the detection of the presence of some of the risk factors, finding only two specific scales for the assessment of suicidal ideation. The different authors point out the importance of the role of the nurse both in the preventive field and in the detection of this phenomenon. Conclusion: The identification and knowledge of the risk factors of suicidal ideation and the application of the existing scales of assessment allows the elaboration of protocols to detect suicide in adolescence. The school nurse plays a fundamental role in the prevention and detection of suicidal ideation at this stage, so a series of interventions and tools are proposed, based on the information obtained in the present bibliographic review, which the nursing professional can use in his or her practice.