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Investigation Into Nurse Strategies To Prevent Or Minimise Attempted ...




Title:
Investigation into nurse strategies to prevent or minimise attempted suicide in patients aged 65 and over.


Undergraduate Degree Level Literature Review


7,500 words
Table of contents

Abstract
Introduction
Aims and objectives
Methodology
Rationale for proposal
Literature review
Ethical considerations
Evidence for positive nursing interventions
Conclusions and discussions
Reflections
References
Abstract
This dissertation considers the rationale for positive nurse-based intervention in consideration of issues relating to suicide in the elderly. The introduction sets the context, including the historical context, of the issues and discusses the negative effects of ageism on issues relating to suicide in the elderly.
The literature review considers selected texts which have been chosen for their specific relevance to the issue and particularly those that espouse the view that ageism is counter productive to a satisfactory quality of life outcome for the elderly person.


Conclusions are drawn and discussed with specific emphasis on those measures that are of particular relevance to the nursing profession whether it is in a secondary care facility, a residential home setting or in the primary healthcare team and the community.


Introduction

We can observe, from a recent paper (O'Connell H et al. 2004), the comments that, although there is no doubt that the elderly present a higher risk of completed suicide than any other age group, this fact receives comparatively little attention with factors such as media interest, medical research and public health measures being disproportionately focused on the younger age groups (Uncapher H et al. 2000).


Perhaps we should not be surprised at the fact that both suicidal feelings and thoughts of hopelessness have been considered part of the social context of growing old and becoming progressively less capable. This is not a phenomenon that is just confined to our society. We know that the Ancient Greeks tolerated these feelings in their society and actively condoned the option of assisted suicide if the person involved had come to the conclusion that they had no more useful role to play in society (Carrick P 2000). Society largely took the view that once an individual had reached old age they no longer had a purpose in life and would be better off dead. In a more modern context, we note the writings of Sigmund Freud who observed (while he was suffering from an incurable malignancy of the palate:
It may be that the gods are merciful when they make our lives more unpleasant as we grow old. In the end, death seems less intolerable than the many burdens we have to bear.
(cited in McClain et al.


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