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.
They can ask...and then see my behind as I walk out.
Only if they're fascist domestic enemies of the people of the United States.
Ah, they want to protect us from suicide. How sweet. Except for state-assisted suicide, of course, which is perfectly acceptible.
Doctors shouldn't be asking anyone whether they have guns or not, period.
You wanna talk gun safety Doc?
Sure, it’s this little button right here.
Revolvers don't have safeties.
Sun City is being flooded with AK-47s?
And what, pray tell, makes these left-wing quacks experts on “gun safety?”
I would tell the so-called doctor, if asked this intrusive and unnecessary question, “200,000 patients are needlessly killed in America every year by the mistakes of you so-called “doctors.” How about you drastically reduce this absurd number of deaths before you ask me about my firearms, which have killed no one?”
And then I would walk out of his or her exam room, never to return. A complaint with a local medical board would follow.
NO
But if they do, I will say phuque off and walk out of the office.
We don't need to know anymore about this than the part I put in bold type.
AFAIC, a doctor can ask me how many toes I have and which of my 'jammies will house them - I don't have to answer.
And, if that doesn't work for him, there are other doctors who refuse to be tools of the state!
I Believe you can figure out the meaning.
There’s no end to life’s busybodies.
None of their business.
They can ask....and I can say ‘what difference does it make’?.
Well Doc, I keep one under your bed in case you walk in on us.
In other words, none of your damn business.
And that's bad for business. No wonder the medicos want those weapons pulled.
NO!
0bamaPseudoDocs need to be askin’ ‘bout ‘rat peeps’ response to Bammy Death Panels.
Older folks should walk into these MDs offices with their concealed carry... And as the MD askes his dumb questions you pull your jacket aside so he can see your gun
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