Posted on 07/09/2013 9:40:31 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Older men are at high risk of suicide, and they're far more likely to kill themselves if they have access to firearms.
Doctors should ask relatives of older people with depression or cognitive problems if there are guns in the home, much as they might ask about whether it's time to take away the car keys, an academic paper says.
"There's been so much attention to the role of physicians and the safety of young children when there are guns in the home," says Marshall Kapp, a professor and director of the Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law at Florida State University, and author of the paper. "We really haven't seen much discussion in the physicians' role regarding older patients."
For decades, pediatricians have asked parents about guns in the home and safe storage methods, in an effort to reduce accidental deaths and suicides among children and teenagers. But there are no similar physician policies for adults.
With older adults, "we don't think about prevention and safety the way we would with children," Kapp told Shots. "An older person who is seriously compromised by mental disorders is in many respects as helpless and vulnerable and dependent as a child would be."
Men are far more likely to commit suicide than are women, and are more likely to use firearms. Higher rates of gun ownership correlate with higher suicide rates. That's one reason why public health officials look at firearms access as a possible means of preventing suicides.
Kapp's paper, which was published in Annals of Internal Medicine, focuses on reducing the suicide risk in older adults.
But doctors might need to start asking if middle-aged men have a gun cabinet, too.
Suicide rates among middle-aged men have risen over the past decade, from 21.5 to 27.3 per 100,000 from 1999 to 2010. That rivals the rate among white men over 65, of 30 per 100,000. White men over 85 have the highest suicide rate of any group, at 47 per 100,000.
Researchers say it's unclear why older men are more apt to kill themselves. It could be risk factors such as social isolation and lack of coping skills, or easier access to lethal means.
Kapp thinks it will soon become "prudent practice" for physicians to ask about guns in older patients' homes, but no medical organizations have proposed such a policy. It would also mean that family members may have to act, which can be difficult, as anyone who has dealt with an older parent and the issue of driving can attest.
And talking about guns with patients and their families can be politically dicey.
Last year Florida passed a law, dubbed the "Docs vs. Glocks" law, restricting doctor-patient discussions about guns. But an appeals court upheld the doctors' right to discuss gun safety. Other states have considered similar laws, but haven't enacted them.
If you hate doctors, stay far away from them. They have plenty if work without your business.
“I don’t talk about that. It would spoil the surprise.”
I'm so suck of this crap. Just refuse to answer. Doctors pack heat, too
And if you threaten them for asking a question, im advising those same docs to CHART that threat, or even to call the cops. Keep your brain turned in, and QUIT SHOWING OFF
Yes, it’s government fearing the people. But that’s the way it’s supposed to be, rather than the reverse. And if a person is going to commit suicide anyway, why not take out someone trying to steal your guns in the process?
Too easy. They will eventually be instructed to consider that kind of response as a "yes" and make it part of your medical records. Instead, make it uncomfortable for him to ask that. When he asks if you own a gun, so no and then turn it back on him and ask him a wholly personal and inappropriate question about his sex life. Like how often he has to shave his wife's back. Hey, he wants to know intensely personal and unrelated to medicine things about you...return the favor. Use your imagination. Just try to have some fun with it.
Me. "Have you ever been sued for malpractice Doc?"
The first time my doctor asks me anything like this is the day I walk out after 45 years of being his patient and find an NRA sanctioned doctor.
LLS
Where do you live? Do you have children?
As soon as you refuse to answer him the NSA and everyone else will have you on a list to watch. My doctor told me that they have to upload all of their daily files to the government... every day. He uses a laptop more than a stethoscope.
LLS
In my best GySgt Hartman voice.......”this is my gun” doc.
No doubt - which is why I say the best alternative is to just lie and say "no guns". Yet, you got to wonder how long it will be before the government makes it a crime to lie to your doctor.
Agree 100%. Prime target should be people on the “death” panel who refuse someone the care they deserve.Take out a few of them and this crap will come to a grinding halt!
The leftist tried to have criminologists provide support for gun control legislation. That approach has repeatedly failed, with criminologists who were mild gun control proponents being regularly converted to gun control opponents when they actually studied the facts.
So, the leftists switched tactics to using medical professionals to push for gun control by comparing guns to bacteria. While really, really stupid, this approach was more reliable because doctors do not know as much about crime and they were able to find doctors who would create bogus “studies” that they could use for propaganda. The propaganda was so blatant that congress cut funding to the CDC to stop it.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-cdc-succumbed-to-gun-epidemic.html
Rather stupid assumption that taking guns away stops suicide. Sleeping pills and auto exhaust are equally available, even to those without guns or whose guns were taken away.
The better approach is to ask if someone feels hopeless, trapped or unable to cope and then provide options.
Pediatricians have been asking us this for years - in the name of children’s safety.
It’s better for an old person to suicide by gun rather than driving the wrong way down a freeway.
A couple months ago I needed a couple stitches for a minor injury - first time in over two decades. The nursing staff started asking a bundle of questions “to properly treat me” that had absolutely no bearing on proper treatment. I strongly declined to answer, and stated I would WOULD walk out of there if they insisted I do so. Stood up ready to go... and got “Sit back down. I’ll get the doctor for you now.”
Questions about allergies, pertinent history, etc... FINE.
About guns, living situation, smoking, alcohol use, etc... have NO BEARING on how a doctor will put in a couple stitches!
Doctors should stick to being doctors. Treat illness, you fools. If my doctor asks if I have a gun, I’ll lie to him. I’ll never return to him.
Should doctors be playing politics? Nope.
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