In 2014, a college student died by suicide following his first year at the University of Texas at Austin. Following his death, his parents began to advocate for legislation that would increase awareness of mental health resources on college campuses. College students are particularly vulnerable to the risk of suicidal ideation because they are often facing tremendous academic pressure and are away from family and support systems for the first time.

While colleges have counselors available, students may be unaware of the mental health services that can be provided to them. Counselors may also fail to notice signs of suicidal ideation among their patients, which can result in accusations of clinician malpractice. Protecting young people during a vulnerable time in their life is of the utmost importance and two new laws have passed that could make a substantial difference in saving lives.

A closer look at Texas college suicide rates

In Texas, suicide is the second leading cause of death for college-aged kids. Around a third of all college students in Texas are reportedly dealing with depression.

Senate Bill 1624 was championed by the parents of the University of Texas at Austin student who died by suicide. The Bill was signed into law and took effect recently. The law requires universities to provide students with information on suicide prevention services and mental health services during their orientation period.

The bill mandates the information be provided to students during either a live presentation or a video. The information may not be provided in paper form. The purpose of requiring a video is to ensure students actually receive the information. Dallas News reports the director of the Counseling and Mental Health Center at UT-Austin is making a video that schools statewide can use in order to fulfill the new legal requirement.

Senate Bill 1624 was one of two laws that recently took effect to try to reduce the risk of death by suicide among college students. The other law requires local universities create a web page providing information to students about how to contact the local health authority in the university community.

The purpose of the new laws is to make it easier for students to access information they need and to reach out for help.  The lawmaker who authored the legislation stated: “College students in particular are at an age or an environment [where it’s] even more difficult for them, to seek out help.”  Now, by providing the information at orientation and on an easy-to-access website, hopefully more students will reach out.

The strong push should be “zero suicide.” This concept is realistic—several organizations have drastically reduced suicides and others have reached the goal of zero.  If zero is not the right number, what is?

Once students do seek mental health services, it is up to counselors to recognize signs of suicidal ideation and to take action to help vulnerable students. The counselor may be the only source of support a student who is far from home has, and the counselor must live up to the professional obligation he has to provide appropriate care and take action to help stop an attempted suicide or a suicide.

A new school year is starting and kids will soon be heading back to college campuses nationwide. For many of these students, the new school year is not something to look forward to this fall. Instead, returning to college mean means a return to the tremendous pressures to be perfect in a competitive college setting. High expectations and intense stress to succeed often contribute to high rates of campus depression and suicidal thoughts among young people.

New York Times reported the rate of death by suicide among 15 to 24 year olds has steadily increased since 2007. And college students may be among the most vulnerable segment of society. A recent survey of college counseling centers found that more than half of clients seeking counseling have “severe psychological problems.” College students, who may have limited parental supervision and distant support networks while away at school, face an especially significant risk. College counselors may be the only ones who can determine when a student is considering death by suicide and the only ones available to take action to help the student. That’s why counselors and academic institutions may be held accountable when these warning signs are missed.

Warning signs are missed by clinicians because of lack of training on taking a systematic suicide assessment.  With training a clinician has no excuse for deciding not to take the time to properly assess and document the assessment.  If the student is at risk for suicide then appropriate interventions need to be taken to protect the patient.

College Students and Risks of Death by Suicide

In 2007, there were 9.6 deaths by suicide per 100,000 individuals age 15 to 24. In 2013, that figure had risen to 11.1 suicides per 100,000 individuals within the same demographic group. Among college students seeking counseling, chances a student would be diagnosed with a severe mental condition increased 13 percent over a period of just two years. Anxiety and depression are the two most common mental health diagnoses among college students.

Female students may be especially at risk of suffering from anxiety and depression because reports have shown many feel a pressure to be effortlessly and relentlessly perfect. This means not only excelling academically and in social endeavors, but also putting forth a persona of being happy and self-assured all the time.

Women afraid to fail may hide mental issues they are facing until it is too late for friends and family to help them. College counselors need to be trained to identify when a student is masking deep-seated depression or anxiety so they can provide the mental health assistance students need when coping with the very real pressures they face.

The Times notes there has been several high profile suicides among both college and high school students in recent years attributed to the culture of high expectations and overachievement. In just 13-months, six students from University of Pennsylvania died by suicide. Tulane University lost four students to death by suicide in a single academic year, and there were three deaths by suicide at Appalachian State. From 2009 to 2010, there were also six students at Cornell University who died by suicide. Most of these students appeared to have everything going for them, and were active in campus groups. However, many were likely responding to pressures to act self-assured and mask doubts they had about their futures.

As college students head back to campus this year, schools need to be aware of the toll of the pressure to be perfect can have on students. That’s why colleges and universities need to make sure students receive the support they need to deal with mental health issues before it’s too late.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

More than one million people attempted suicide in the United States in 2013, with total of 41,149 fatal outcomes reported. As the 10^th ranking cause of death in the United States, statistics reveal that an average of 113 people died by suicide every day – or roughly one person every 12.8 minutes.

Sponsored by the American Association of Suicidology, the 41^st annual National Suicide Prevention Week is underway from September 7-13, 2015 and aims to bring a simple message to schools, colleges, hospitals, mental health centers and treatment facilities nationwide: suicide prevention is everyone’s business.

As any mental health malpractice attorney knows, it is critical not only to ensure that those with suicidal ideations and behaviors receive the help they need, but for healthcare professionals of all types to receive the training necessary to identify at-risk patients at schools, colleges, hospitals and mental health centers across the United States.

What is National Suicide Week?

In conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, National Suicide Prevention Week is designed to raise awareness for some of the most common factors for suicide – such as mental illness, substance abuse, previous suicide attempts and access to lethal means – and how to engage individuals and organizations alike to the cause of suicide awareness and prevention.

As part of the campaign, organizations are encouraged to recognize suicide as a significant public health problem. States are encouraged to develop accessible behavioral health service programs, use multiple suicide prevention efforts appropriate for different populations and communities and encourage educational initiatives in schools and colleges.

In addition, National Suicide Prevention Week also encourages high schools, colleges and universities to create activities to educate students about the prevalence of suicide, engage students in prevention activities and promote public awareness about the importance of suicide prevention.

By drawing attention to the critical topic of suicide prevention, the campaign also aims to reduce the negative social stigma surrounding the topic of suicide and encourage the assistance and support of people who have faced suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide. As of 2011, the American Association of Suicidology estimated more than 4.6 million survivors of attempted suicide in the United States alone.

As a means of raising awareness for the issue of suicide prevention, National Suicide Prevention Week observance has a specific theme each year. Past themes have included “Suicide Prevention Across the Life Span” in 2007, “Families, Community Systems and Suicide” in 2010 and “Changing the Legacy of Suicide” in 2011.

A Dallas, TX suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

Suicide malpractice attorney Skip Simpson will offer a legal perspective during the 2015 Annual Conference for Behavioral Health on Sept. 17 at the Airport DoubleTree by Hilton.

Simpson, who is based in Dallas but represents families who have lost loved ones nationwide, has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on the legal aspects of suicide. He has been quoted in national publications including the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic Monthly.

His presentation in September is titled “Thinking Failure – The Right Focus.”  Thinking failure means to imagine all the ways something can go wrong—before it does—and fix it.  Simpson had a 20 year career in the military where he learned about failure mode effect analysis as a combat crew member dealing with nuclear weapons.  NASA, nuclear facilities, and aircraft carrier crews are well versed in the concept.  The Joint Commission for years has stressed that Behavioral hospitals learn to think failure for patient safety.

Simpson will speak about how best practices inform legal protections and reduce risk, among other issues. One of the learning objectives of his presentation is called “Avoiding the fear or lawsuits.”

Simpson urges mental health providers to document their assessments of patients to avoid lawsuits and to reduce the risk of a patient dying.

“My goal as an attorney is not to threaten mental health care providers with lawsuits. I want to help make meaningful systematic changes. The system has been broken for a long time, but it can be repaired and is being repaired” Simpson said. “The law is on the side of care providers; it is not a stumbling block or something to be feared for those who practice safely. If they follow best practices in suicide risk assessment, management and carefully document their assessments and how they reach their conclusions on protecting patients, they will be protected against suicide malpractice lawsuits.”

Over 100 people die by suicide every day in the United States. According to the American Association of Suicidology, 41,149 people lost their lives from suicide in 2013.

Simpson notes that every suicide in a system is preventable. That’s why it’s critical for health care providers to do everything possible to prevent system failure.

“Families are not looking for someone to blame when someone dies by suicide,” Simpson said recently. “Lawsuits often happen when the family is upset and providers aren’t sharing information. What stops lawsuits? In most cases, good documentation, the provider’s explanation for what went wrong, along with an apology. Compassion goes a long way to avoid litigation.”

The conference is presented by the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas and Kansas Association of Addiction Professionals. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.acmhck.org/annual-conference/.

Over the past 18-months, there have been reports of a dozen cases involving suicide of white-collar workers who were employed by high profile financial firms at the time of their death. Overall, rates of death by suicide are generally lower among those with attained higher levels of education. However, depression can affect anyone no matter what his or her education levels and income bracket. Often, it is more difficult to recognize or respond to signs of suicidal ideation in those who appear, on paper, to have it all. This can make it more difficult to spot and prevent suicide risks among white collar workers and people in privileged positions.

Mental health counselors should know of all signs of suicide in all patients, including those with good jobs and advanced levels of education—the so called VIP patient. When a mental health professional misses signs of suicidal behavior and death by suicide occurs, a suicide attorney should be consulted by surviving family members for assistance. The death of a white collar professional can have serious financial reverberations on family financial stability and mental health professionals should provide compensation to dependents if the negligence of mental health professionals played a role in causing the death by suicide. If clinicians are not familiar with the VIP risk factor, they need to get familiar ASAP.

Why are More White Collar Workers at Risk of Death by Suicide?

Market Watch discussed the recent spate of suicides among financial professionals and considered why suicide rates are rising among white collar workers. Studies have demonstrated doctors, dentists, financial workers, veterinarians, lawyers, and engineers are among the professions with suicide rates at least 1.5 times the suicide rates among the rest of the population .  Physicians have a suicide rate 1.87 times higher than the rest of the population, and dentists have a suicide rate 1.67 times higher than average. A part of this may be explained by easier access to dangerous pharmaceuticals that could be used in a suicide attempt.

Workers within these and other white collar professions may feel significant amount of career pressure. Many of the professions are highly competitive and workers within certain fields may have a particularly negative response to stress or to a crisis. While there has not been a clearly-established causal link between work pressure and higher risks of suicide for white collar professionals, it is possible the high levels of stress coupled with the intensive work environment are a contributing factor to more white collar workers taking their lives.  Careers that are all-consuming may also isolate workers from family and friends, thus increasing the risk of death by suicide.

A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated the increased rate of suicide among individuals in these higher-profile and higher-paying careers is something which should be researched further. If a causal link is discovered between certain careers and an added risk of death by suicide, more actions can be taken to protect workers within that field.

National suicide malpractice attorney Skip Simpson says problems highlighted in news reports about Rutland Medical Health Services in Montpelier, Vermont, serve as a reminder that facilities around the country must take all steps to ensure the safety of patients – and now!

“Until there is a culture of safety instead of a culture of making a profit at the expense of safety nothing will change,” said Simpson.

Simpson commented on a July 11 Associated Press story published in the Rutland Herald and other publications (“Lawmakers hear of problems at Rutland Mental Health”). According to the article, Rutland Mental Health Services may close because of a pattern of deficiencies. These include improper use of restraints and failure to lock up medication. One client of the facility who had been on a waiting list for treatment for six months died by suicide.

“As an attorney who has represented families who have lost loved ones because of negligence by healthcare facilities, I see these types of patterns at other facilities across the country,” Simpson said. “I do hope that legislative efforts can lead to improvements. Often, a state is slow to react when a pattern of deficiencies comes to light.

“My job is not to file frivolous lawsuits against these facilities. I want to see healthcare providers do a better job of protecting their clients. Unfortunately, the mental health industry often is resistant to making changes that will improve safety and protect their clients. As a last resort, a lawsuit sometimes is necessary.”

In Montpelier, legislators have recommended that Rutland Mental Health Services be removed from its position as the Rutland region’s main provider of mental health services. According to the AP report, some members of the House Human Service Committee expressed alarm that the state had not acted more quickly to a series of abusive, life-threatening situations, including the suicide of a client.

Simpson said suicide is the third leading cause of death for young adults and the 10^th leading cause of death for the general population.

According to the most recent statistics from the American Association of Suicidology, in 2013 41,149 people in the United States died by suicide.  That statistic breaks down to 112.7 per day.

The AAS states that Vermont ranks 10^th nationwide in terms of suicides. There were 112 deaths in 2013, or a rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 population.

When someone is having thoughts of suicide, a psychiatric hospital should be a place where they are kept safe: it is the reason for they exist. Psychiatric hospitals must ensure their facilities provide no opportunity for patients to cause themselves harm when they are at risk of suicide. How can it be any other way? When a hospital fails in this duty and patients suffer an experienced suicide attorney can help families to pursue legal action to recover compensation for losses the facility’s carelessness causes. A patient has a right to safety; the patient’s family has a right to know their loved one is safe.

Besides civil action, regulators can, and should, also take action against hospitals that fail their patients. It is their job to protect us. When hospitals and regulators fail to protect us, it is the duty of juries to protect us—to make our communities safe.

Facilities providing mental healthcare are often state funded or receive federal funds through Medicaid and Medicare. States can threaten their funding, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can determine a facility should no longer continue to receive payments if it cannot provide safe patient care. Losing funding can have a major impact on whether the facility can continue operating.

Psychiatric Hospital Faces Loss of Funding

One facility at risk of losing its funding is Timberlawn Mental Health System, which is in Dallas. Officials at the facility were warned doorknobs in patient’s room might be used to hang themselves.  Despite the serious danger the door knobs presented, they were not replaced until February 19. This was two days after the first of safety inspections that occurred unannounced.

The door knobs were not the only problem. Inspections conducted by U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) uncovered “numerous safety problems,” according to the Dallas News.

On February 17 of last year, federal inspectors indicated there were shortcomings at the facility that left patients at Timberlawn in “immediate jeopardy.” This included things like having plastic liners in garbage cans, and telephone and electrical cords that presented a risk to psychiatric patients. Immediate jeopardy is the most serious warning CMS issues.

While the facility submitted a plan in March to remedy the issues, the changes the hospital indicated it would make came too late for one patient.  A 37-year-old who had checked herself into the facility when struggling with a dissociative disorder had died by suicide in December. Her death took place a full five months after the initial warnings about the doorknobs were issued to the facility.

Suicide attorney Skip Simpson from the Law Offices of Skip Simpson is representing the family and called failing to change the doorknobs “completely reckless.”  The Dallas Morning News quoted Simpson: “This hospital needs to go ahead and put a sign up in front of their building that says ‘Not safe for suicidal patients.”

The hospital’s reckless behavior has had a real cost. While it may make changes now, they are being forced to do so due to the threat of lost funding, those changes should have been made early so the facility could have better fulfilled its basic obligation to keep patients safe.

It should not have taken a threat to close the facility for this hospital to provide a safe environment of care: a culture of safety. Plenty of patient safety rules, for many, many years, have required psychiatric facilities to be safe. The Joint Commission requires patient safety. Doesn’t it just make sense? Texans like rules. They teach their children rules. They teach their children when rules are broken there are consequences.

Sadly a family with their daughter in this facility suffered the biggest consequence. Now Timberlawn will pay the consequences. It is just what happens in Texas. We like rules and folks playing by the rules; nothing new all over America.

Another thing we teach our children: “when you break a rule and it hurts someone or property: you make it right.” My mom said “Skip, you broke the window—admit it and pay for it.” It is just what good citizens do; yes, corporate citizens too. It is just the simple truth.

Suicide – a global problem – is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. As Quartz reports, more than 800,000 people throughout the world die by suicide each year and many millions more people attempt suicide.

An experienced suicide attorney knows understanding the risk factors that can lead to suicide is vitally important to try to bring the death rate down. One of these risk factors relates to gender. In every country throughout the world, men are much more likely to die by suicide than women.

Men are at Greater Risk of Dying by Suicide in Every Country in the World

In the United States, 32,055 males died by suicide in 2013, the last official figures. 9,094 females died by suicide for same time period. There were 3.5 deaths by suicide for each female death by suicide. This discrepancy of male versus female suicide rates is even larger in some countries. For example, in Lithuania, 49.5 men out of every 100,000 die by suicide compared to 8.4 females.

There are many different factors that could help to explain why men are so much more likely to die by suicide. However, one medical professional from the University of Glasgow believes that a major contributing factor to the higher rates of male suicides is the phenomenon of social perfectionism.

Despite an increased focus on equality of genders, the majority of men still believe that they must provide for their families and will consider themselves failures if they cannot do so. The perceived pressure to provide for a family is outside of a man’s control – he believes – and may be a conscious or subconscious pressure, but it is present even in societies where significant progress has been made toward making the genders more equal. Studies as recent as 2014 show that men still think that others will view them negatively if they are not able to make a good living.

Women can also be social perfectionists, but evidence suggests that the phenomenon is not as pervasive among women and that the social perfectionism that men feel pressured to live up to is much more harmful. One expert from the University of Florida, for instance, indicates that while women generally think of themselves as women even if they do not live up to feminine ideals, a man who cannot provide may consider himself no longer to be a “man.”

Understanding this intuitive phenomenon can help prevent death by suicide among men. When men are experiencing periods of unemployment or are facing financial struggles, it will become even more important for family members and mental health professionals to be watchful for any signs of suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Men can and should be able to get help from mental health professionals in overcoming fear they will lose their manhood if they cannot earn a living as successfully as they had hoped. There is a catch: men are not as likely to seek any healthcare, let along mental health care because of stigma and macho attitudes.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation. Serving clients throughout the United States. 

After a young Texas teen died by suicide and his parents revealed he had been bullied, hundreds of supporters came out for a peaceful demonstration. The teen’s parents indicated that the bullying had gone on for weeks before the young man killed himself. The teen had obtained a gun from a friend, allegedly to protect himself and his family from the bullying occurring. His friend has now been arrested according to CBS Local, but the teen’s parents want the school to face accountability.

A suicide attorney knows that bullying is one top reason for teens to consider death by suicide. School officials claim that the district where the Texas teen had attended school is adamantly opposed to bullying. However, the supporters of the family of the teen who died want bullying to be discussed more openly and want stricter policies in place to protect young people.

Preventing Teen Death by Suicide Can Be Challenging

The school district insists that it did nothing wrong. The District stated that many interviews with students, counselors, and staff members had been conducted but that no prior reported incidents of bullying had preceded the teen’s death. Some bullying goes unreported or school officials may see bullying occur but not take formal steps to stop it.

School districts have a responsibility to their students, but there may be limited things the district can do to get kids to stop being mean or exclusionary to others. Young people should learn about the dangers of bullying from a young age and should be taught the behavior is unacceptable. These lessons must explained in a way that causes teens to understand and to respect their peers instead of subjecting anyone to bullying behavior.

An article on Palo Alto online describes how some California areas are responding to the risk of teen death by suicide following several recent deaths on Caltrain tracks. A Mental Health Association held a round-table discussion on ways to prevent death by suicide among youth, recognizing there are no easy fixes to the problem.

One pilot program being used is called Fire Within. Fire Within uses entrepreneurship and the support of teen peers to help students be more open about how they are feeling and to get a better understanding of the root causes of depression and teen suicide. The program involves peers talking to each other about depression and encourages teens to seek emotional support from each other in high stress environments.

The pilot program is being tried because of a belief that what schools have done so far to address the issues of bullying and teen death by suicide have not been working. There is no quick or easy solution to help kids cope with their depression or to stop bullying behaviors, but hopefully programs like this could be a step in the right direction.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.

Suicide attorney Skip Simpson has provided legal representation to many families whose loved ones have died by suicide because of the failures of mental health professionals to provide appropriate care. Simpson believes – relating to suicide prevention – the mental health care system is broken and that implementing best practices  for suicide risk assessment would help to save thousands of lives every year. His goal is not to threaten care providers with lawsuits, but instead is to help secure compensation for victims and to help ensure that mental health professionals are as effective in preventing unnecessary deaths.

As one of the leading experts nationwide on the legal aspects of suicide resulting from the negligence of mental health providers, Simpson was recently asked to speak at a training seminar for mental health service professionals. The seminar was held in late February at the University of Denver. Mr. Simpson was invited to speak about how best practices for suicide prevention treatment can be implemented by health care providers to reduce risk and provide legal protections.

Simpson Talks to Mental Health Professionals About Treating At-Risk patients

The training seminar was attended by psychology students, psychiatrists, and psychologists, all of whom could treat patients who are at risk for an attempted suicide. The conference was called the Elevating the Conversation Conference. Simpson was asked to speak to the attendees about how to avoid suicide malpractice lawsuits while better caring for the suicidal patient.

Simpson cautioned providers that their care decisions should not be made based on a fear of being sued, as focusing on lawsuits could end up taking the attention off the patient. Providers must devote their full energy to focusing on meeting the needs of at-risk clients and identifying when someone may consider death by suicide.

Simpson also encouraged providers to avoid a “checklist mentality,” and to really hear what patients are saying. Insincere attitudes can be recognized by patients and doctors who focus on ticking off boxes of things they need to do to prevent lawsuits will not be effective at getting through to people who need help.

Over 100 people die by suicide daily in the United States, so any failure of the psychiatric care system can be very dangerous. Simpson believes there is a need for meaningful systematic change, especially since every suicide in a system should be preventable with the right mental health care. During the training seminar, Simpson discussed some of the best practices that could be followed for medical professionals to ensure they are following the recommended guidelines for suicide prevention.

Simpson also advised therapists and counselors to ensure they are documenting everything. The quality of documentation can mean the difference between being sued when a patient dies by suicide and not being sued.

If providers follow these recommendations and try to effectively manage suicide risk assessment, perhaps more deaths by suicide will be prevented.

A suicide attorney at the Law Offices of Skip Simpson can help. Call (214) 618-8222 or visit http://www.skipsimpson.com to schedule a free case consultation.