Preventive Strategies & Program Evaluation Methods for Chronically Mentally Ill Suicide Attempters

The authors reviewed the medical records of 282 patients admitted to University Hospital, Portland, Oregon, following suicide attempts in 1979-80 with a view to defining appropriate treatment strategies & outcome criteria for this population. Based on findings that these patients had chronic psychiatric disorders, overdosed on medications, spent a short time in hospital & were primarily from a core area, a community-based primary prevention program for the chronically mentally ill was developed.