TY - JOUR
PY - 2024//
TI - Suicide risk screening and evaluation among patients accessing VHA services and identified as being newly homeless
JO - Health services research
A1 - Holliday, Ryan
A1 - Hostetter, Trisha
A1 - Brenner, Lisa A.
A1 - Bahraini, Nazanin
A1 - Tsai, Jack
SP - ePub
EP - ePub
VL - ePub
IS - ePub
N2 - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate universal suicide risk screening and evaluation processes among newly homeless Veterans. STUDY SETTING: Not applicable. STUDY DESIGN: Examination of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) using newly homeless patients' health record data in Calendar Year 2021. DATA COLLECTION: Not applicable. DATA SOURCE: Health record data. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Most patients received suicide risk screening and/or evaluation in the year prior to and/or following homeless identification (n = 49,505; 87.4%). Smaller percentages of patients were screened and/or evaluated in close proximity to identification (n = 7358; 16.0%), 1-30 days prior to identification (n = 12,840; 39.6%), or 1-30 days following identification (n = 14,263; 34.3%). Common settings for screening included primary care, emergency and urgent care, and mental health services. Of positive screens (i.e., potentially elevated risk for suicide), 72.6% had a Comprehensive Suicide Risk Evaluation (CSRE) completed in a timely manner (i.e., same day or within 24 h). Age, race, and sex were largely unrelated to screening and/or evaluation.
CONCLUSIONS: Although many newly identified homeless patients were screened and/or evaluated for suicide risk, approximately 13% were not screened; and 27% of positive screens did not receive a timely CSRE. Continued efforts are warranted to facilitate suicide risk identification to ensure homeless patients have access to evidence-based interventions.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0017-9124 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.14301 ID - ref1 ER -