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Are elderly suicide rates improved by increased provision of mental health service resources? A cross-national study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2008

Ajit Shah  and
Ravi Bhat
Ajit Shah*
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, Preston, U.K. and West London Mental Health NHS Trust, London, U.K.
Ravi Bhat
Affiliation:
Centre for Older Persons' Health and School of Rural Health, University of Melbourne, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Professor Ajit Shah, West London Mental Health NHS Trust, Uxbridge Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 3EU, U.K. Phone: +44 208 354 8140; Fax: +44 208 354 8898. Email: ajit.shah@wlmht.nhs.uk.
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Abstract

Background: Elderly suicide rates may be influenced by mental health service provision.

Methods: A cross-national study examining the hypothesis that the relationship between elderly suicide rates and markers of mental health service provision would be curvilinear (inverted-U shaped curve) and fit the quadratic equation y = a + bx − cx2 (where y is the elderly suicide rate, x is a marker for mental health service provision, and a, b and c are constants) was undertaken by utilizing data from the World Health Organization.

Results: The relationship between the logarithm of suicide rates in both sexes in both the elderly age-bands and the percentage of the total health budget spent on mental health, the total number of psychiatric beds per 10,000 population and the total number of psychiatrists per 10,000 population were curvilinear (inverted U-shaped curve) and fitted the quadratic equation y = a + bx − cx2 with statistical significance.

Conclusions: The direction of the causal relationship could be examined in longitudinal studies, after further improvement in levels of mental health service provision, in individual countries segregated by low and high levels of existing mental health service provision.

Keywords

elderly suicidesservice provisionmental health policy and funding
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 20 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 1230 - 1237
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2008

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