September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Every 11 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies by suicide. It’s the 10th leading cause of death, with 130 Americans dying each day by suicide.
These statistics, while harrowing, are outdated because they precede the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary data suggest that the pandemic has significantly worsened mental health, particularly among children and adolescents, and increased suicide ideation and attempts. Emergency department visits for suicide attempts were more than 50 percent higher among adolescent girls in February/March 2021, compared with the same period in 2019.
Reducing the number of attempted and completed suicides requires a long-term and sustained investment in the behavioral health care system, from schools to community mental health agencies to inpatient facilities.
But more can be done today to eliminate barriers to timely care and treatment, and XFERALL is proud to be a part of the solution. XFERALL helps by:
1. Reducing hospital ED wait times. By helping clinicians locate and place their patients with available behavioral health care resources efficiently, patients in psychiatric crisis get to the care they need more quickly. On average, XFERALL’s partners get their patients into behavioral health treatment in fewer than three hours. This matters because, for patients in psychiatric crisis, waiting for care increases the likelihood of treatment refusal, elopement from the hospital, and a risk event within 48 hours of discharge, with the worst-case scenario being patient suicide.
2. Facilitating time-sensitive post-discharge treatment. Getting outpatient mental health treatment within seven days of leaving a psychiatric hospital significantly reduces children’s and adolescents’ risk of suicide, according to a study published in the JAMA Network last summer. However, nationally, only about half of psychiatric inpatients receive outpatient mental health care in the week after discharge; approximately two-thirds receive mental health care within 1 month.
For patients who have their inpatient psychiatric stay facilitated by the XFERALL platform, getting their clinical information back in the hands of their “home” provider is a critical aspect of the platform’s functionality so that there is no delay in getting the patient into appropriate outpatient treatment. On the XFERALL app, the patient’s clinical information is shared among their providers in real-time in a central location.
Through the XFERALL platform, more than 80 percent of patients have their clinical documentation received by and appointment scheduled with their outpatient behavioral health provider prior to discharge from the inpatient facility.
XFERALL’s mission is to make sure no one waits needlessly for essential care and treatment. For individuals in crisis or considering suicide, every second counts. With XFERALL, hospitals and health care clinicians have the means to eliminate barriers to timely care and help those in pain start the healing process.
Learn more about how the platform works and schedule a demo today.