This resource guide addresses suicide prevention in older adults (defined as age 60 or older). The model guiding the selection of resources for this guide is the ‘5 D’s of Late Life Suicide.’ This model describes the most common characteristics of older people who die by suicide (with the accumulation of factors suggesting greater risk)—depression (and other mental disorders), disability (functional and sensory impairment), disease (physical illness, including multimorbidity) and access to deadly means (in the U.S. firearms are most common).
Key facts about the epidemiology late-life suicide were also used to guide the development of this resource, including that:
- most older people die on their first attempt (necessitating the use of universal and selective programs)
- the most common method of suicide in later life is firearms
- older people are unlikely to present to care in specialty mental health clinics but do present for care in primary care clinics in the months and weeks before their deaths.
Users of this guide should keep several limitations in mind. First, programs that have shown some effectiveness for late-life suicide prevention often (if not always) contain multiple components and layers (i.e., universal, selective, and indicated prevention strategies). There are no such models readily available in the U.S. for older adults, so users should understand the limitations of selecting a single program from this list. As well, this guide focuses on resources tailored for older adults. Given that there are relatively few of these resources, considering programs not specifically designed for older adults may be useful to address current gaps. A particularly notable gap is the lack of suicide specific gatekeeper programs for older adults given the differing presentation of older people at risk for suicide (from younger people) and the fact that older people do not commonly seek out specialty mental health care; the exception is for senior living communities and senior centers, as there are suicide prevention toolkits for these settings (that may be useful for other settings where older adults frequent). Gaps are also especially apparent regarding intersecting identities (e.g., older adults who identify as LGBTQ, Native American, Black, Hispanic, Asian among others), as suicide-specific resources are not available that address the specific needs of older people in those groups; to address this gap, programs and resources are included in this guide for selective prevention programs that address the 5D’s for these older adults.
Population of Focus: Older Adults
Links to Resources:
- Read the full guide about Equity Focused Suicide Prevention Resources for Older Adults
- Check out a toolkit about Promoting Emotional Health and Preventing Suicide for senior living staff
- Learn more about depression and older adults
- Check out online educational modules about Older Adults in Crisis
- Read a caregiver guide about depression in older adults
Date: 2024