Efficiency of AIMS: A 4-Week Recovery Oriented Suicide Prevention Pathway.
Manaan Kar Ray, Annabelle Groth, Nicola Geffen and 6 others
PMID 40525708WHAT IT FOUND
In 552 people in suicidal crisis, a 4-week team pathway was entered mainly from emergency or acute care and discharged participants to community services; 6-month re-presentation was low, but no control group.
Key findings
01Most of the 552 people in the pathway were referred from the acute care team or emergency department.
02At discharge, 471 referrals were made to general practitioners and 272 to non-government organisations.
03Among 249 people with no previous public mental health service contact, 190 did not re-present to mental health services.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
There was no control group, so the observed referral, discharge and re-presentation patterns cannot be attributed to the pathway. Follow-up was only 6 months, and the authors planned a two-year follow-up study. The study could not access records of out-of-state or private care, so post-intervention recovery journeys may be incomplete. It is unclear whether the 552 people represent all individuals in suicidal crisis, because data on emergency department presentations not referred to the team were not available. Referrals that were not actioned were excluded, so the results apply only to people who engaged with the pathway. The study used descriptive record review and did not collect qualitative feedback from participants or staff.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. One author authored the PROTECT Suicide Prevention guidebook and workbook and delivers remunerated suicide prevention training internationally for Progress Guide. The study was funded by the Emergency Medicine Foundation and Metro South Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude the pathway prevented suicide or reduced demand. It had no control group and only measured re-presentation to public mental health services at 6 months.