n South African Journal of Psychiatry - Overcrowding as a possible risk factor for inpatient suicide in a South African psychiatric hospital : letter

Abstract

The risk of suicide among people with mental illness is estimated to be 10 times higher than in the general population. About 4% of all suicides in England and Wales are estimated to occur while the person is an inpatient in a psychiatric facility. Surveys have found that most psychiatrists have personal experience of the suicide of a patient under their care in hospital. In order to actualise efficacious treatment, it is imperative that the contributing causes of inpatient suicides be examined.

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The purpose of this letter is to explore the potential risk factors and to consider the possibility of whether overcrowding could have been a contributing element when three inpatients committed suicide in the male acute ward of a psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Cape, between March 2012 and August 2013.