Nova Scotia suicides and suicide attempts up by 74%, stats show
Psychiatry expert says the increase is due to better record keeping
A 74 per cent increase in the number of reported suicides and serious suicide attempts inside the province's medical system is likely the result of better record keeping, said Dr. Michael Teehan, the head of psychiatry at Dalhousie University's Faculty of Medicine.
Nova Scotia's Department of Health and Wellness has been releasing quarterly statistics on serious reportable events in the medical system since April 2013.
The numbers show a steady increase in the number of suicides and suicide attempts.
There were 47 suicide events in the most recent 12 months of statistics, up from 27 the year before, an increase of 74 per cent.
"That the clinical community would not be aware of such a vast increase is just not conceivable. And we have not experienced that," said Teehan, who is also the chief of clinical psychiatric services for the central zone of the Nova Scotia Health Authority.
Better data from police
Instead, Teehan attributes the increase to improvements in tracking and reporting suicides.
The first is a strengthened relationship with police departments, which he said are now more likely to report suicides back to the medical system.
"We are capturing more of those incidents," he said.
Unlike most other categories of serious reportable incidents, which occur inside hospitals and clinics, suicide statistics capture any patient, including outpatients, who have received psychiatric care in the past year.
Teehan said the statistics also reflect cases where a suicide attempt leads to an emergency department visit, even if that person has never received psychiatric treatment before.
"It's right that we know and include these cases in what we're looking at, so we can study them and try to understand," he said.
Teehan said every case classified as a serious reportable event is reviewed to try to improve the system.
"We also look at the pattern to see if there is any trend or any kind of warning signal that there is something we should be looking for," he said.
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