[Approaches for suicide prevention in Osaka Psychiatric Medical Center: the importance of multi-disciplinary cooperation and partnerships with other organizations].

Suicide is a very common problem in psychiatric practice today. Therefore, almost all staff of psychiatric hospitals have encountered the suicide of one or more of their patients. Our hospital, Osaka Psychiatric Medical Center, is a public psychiatric hospital in Japan. We provide treatment and support for patients from the acute to chronic phases of psychiatric disorders, and patients range from children to the elderly. Because we accept many patients with severe mental illness from other hospitals, many of our staff are routinely confronted with patients' violence or suicidal attempts. If a patient commits suicide, the relevant staff immediately have a conference to implement measures for preventing a recurrence. At the same time, information about the incident is conveyed to the medical safety management office and made known to all staff in our hospital. This office was established in 2007. Currently, all information about incidents and accidents in our hospital (e.g., suicide, problems between patients, problems with hospital facilities) is aggregated in the office and distributed to all staff members through the hospital intranet. This system makes it possible for staff to consider countermeasures against similar incidents and accidents, even if not involved in the incident. Additionally, we make an effort to develop cooperative relationships with organizations including the police, public health centers, and the fire department. The social welfare council in Hirakata City, where our hospital is located, provides some services to prevent suicide (e.g., telephone counseling, meetings with bereaved family members). Our hospital cooperates with these services by providing lecturers. The partnerships with these organizations help regarding the mental crises of patients in our hospital and fulfill a role to prevent suicide. Multi-disciplinary cooperation and partnerships with community organizations are not special approaches to suicide prevention, but ordinary approaches in everyday clinical practice. The most important factor is the relationship between staff and organizations relevant to preventing suicide.