Spear, Valerie Walde, Tina

Outpatients Documentation Mental Health Quality Improvement Cause of Death Suicide Prevention Suicide 2018 Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States and the eight- leading cause of death in Oregon. The root cause for many suicides is an inadequate suicide assessment, especially in behavioral health settings. This Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement (QI) project implemented a suicide assessment guideline in an outpatient mental health clinic. The suicide assessment guideline used standardized and evidence-based suicide screening (Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale) and assessment (Suicide Assessment Five Step Evaluation-Triage) tools and implemented standardized documentation and intervention practices. The project aims included an 80% adherence rate to the suicide assessment guidelines for all new clients and a 60% adherence rate for 27 pre-identified high-risk existing clients. Oregon Health and Science University Final project 10.6083/F99DJX