Atkinson JA, Page A, Skinner A, Heffernan M, Prodan A, Hickie IB. The Impact of Reducing Psychiatric Beds on Suicide Rates.
Front Psychiatry 2019;
10:448. [PMID:
31333513 PMCID:
PMC6615492 DOI:
10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00448]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2019] [Accepted: 06/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been ongoing debate regarding the impact of reductions in psychiatric beds on suicide rates, and the potential effect of reallocation of acute hospital funding to community-based mental health programs and services. Computer simulation offers significant value in advancing such debate by providing a robust platform for exploring strategic resource allocation scenarios before they are implemented in the real world. We report an application that demonstrates a threshold effect of cuts to psychiatric beds on suicide rates and the role of context specific variations in population, behavioral, and service use dynamics in determining where that threshold lies. Findings have important implications for regional decision-making regarding resource allocation for suicide prevention.
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