Two issues have surged in awareness across America in recent years: the toll of firearm injuries and deaths, and the impact of mental health conditions. These two issues intersect in multiple ways—and a growing number of people are directly or indirectly affected by one or both of them. That's why it's important for people to know some key things about the risk of firearm-related incidents involving people with mental health conditions, and take steps to reduce that risk, say three experts from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan's academic medical center, and the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention who have training and experience in both fields.
Below are some key takeaways from that chat with Victor Hong, M.D., director of Psychiatric Emergency Services at U-M Health, child psychologist and firearm injury prevention researcher Cynthia Ewell Foster, Ph.
D., and Mark Ilgen, Ph.D.
, director of U-M Addiction Treatment Services. More than half of all firearm deaths in the United States are suicides, and firearms are involved in half of all suicide deaths. Not all people who die by suicide have a formal mental health diagnosis, so it's important for everyone to know the warning signs of suicide and what to do if someone they know is showing some or all of these signs.
There are some warning signs specific to children and teens too. These signs include worsening or severe depression symptoms, expressing hopelessness or feelings of being a burden, extreme mood swing.