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Suicidal behaviour in nursing homes: a survey in a region of north-east Italy
- Authors:
- SCOCCO Paolo, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 21(4), April 2006, pp.307-311.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The complete list of Nursing Homes was provided by the Regional Department of Health for the Veneto region, in the North-East of Italy. Structured interviews were completed with nursing home managers, inquiring about nursing home, staff and management characteristics, mental health care available and the number of completed and attempted suicides (AS) in 2001 made by residents older than 65 years, occurring either inside or outside nursing homes. All facilities which reported suicidal events were asked additional information. In the study period, five completed suicides and eight AS were reported. All but one suicides and one AS had a history of mental disorders. Seven subjects had been living in a nursing home for less than one year. There were no significant differences in the frequency of suicidal events between the facilities which employed or did not employ mental health workers. The suicide rate found in this facility sample is much higher than the rate reported by the Italian National Statistic Institute for the over-65-year-old population of the Veneto Region in 2001, and is similar to the rate reported in a previous study conducted in another country. It is concluded that in Veneto nursing homes behavioural control of residents, lack of access to a variety of means used for suicidal purposes and medical supervision does not seem to have protected the nursing home population from suicidal risks.
Personality and suicidal ideation in the elderly: factorial invariance and latent means structures across age
- Authors:
- ILICETO Paolo, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 18(6), 2014, pp.792-800.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Objectives: Suicide among the elderly is a dramatic global health problem. Although fatal attempts are frequent in the elderly, research indicated that they rarely present long-term elaboration of suicidal ideation and communicate their intents. Consequently, risk factor detection and assessment are salient. Although evidence on the association between personality and suicidal ideation in young adults is accumulating, little is known about its relevance in the elderly. The purpose of the present study was to analyse the components of a measurement model that are invariant across young adults and older adults and then investigate the relations among dimensions of personality and suicide risk. The authors postulated a specific relation pattern a priori and tested the hypotheses statistically in order to examine the models for equivalency of the factorial measurement. Method: 316 young adults and 339 older adults, who were administered self-report questionnaires to assess depression, hopelessness, alternative five-factor model of personality, and self–other perception were investigated. Results: Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, yielding a final model with excellent fit to the data. This model showed a similar pattern of associations between suicidal ideation and personality across both groups. Conclusions: Although the elderly are exposed to specific life stressors associated with suicidal ideation, the findings suggest that the elderly and young adults may be similar on personality and psychopathology variables predicting suicidal ideation than previously hypothesized. Implications are provided for enhanced assessment and intervention of the elderly high in neuroticism, depression, hopelessness, and with negative self–other perception. (Edited publisher abstract)
One-year prevalence of death thoughts, suicide ideation and behaviours in an elderly population
- Authors:
- SCOCCO P., LEO D. De
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17(9), September 2002, pp.844-846.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Suicidality is constituted by all those phenomena that are apparently positioned along a continuum, with the two extremes represented by death wishes and completed suicide. The aim of article is to show the one-year prevalence of the phenomena constituting this possible continuum in the elderly population (aged 65 years and over) of a northern Italian city and to evaluate the relationship between some of these phenomena with psychological suffering.