New Joint Commission ‘Quick Safety’ Advisory Addresses Intimate Partner Violence

The new advisory provides Joint Commission requirements and national recommendations to identify and help patients who have experienced intimate partner violence, which is “behavior by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual, or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse, and controlling behaviors,” according to the World Health Organization.

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Disconnect Found Between Increased Suicide Attempts and People Getting Behavioral Health Services

Suicide has become a leading cause of death in the United States. From 1999 to 2018, annual deaths by suicide increased from 29,199 to 48,344. The new study, which was published this week by JAMA Psychiatry, is based on data collected through the National Survey of Drug Use and Health from 2008 to 2019. The examination of the data focused on individuals 18 years old or older.

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The Physicians Foundation Pursuing Social Drivers of Health Agenda

The Physicians Foundation has adopted the term social drivers of health rather than social determinants of health. As detailed in a Health Affairs article published last year, social drivers of health is a more precise term, which also does not strip people of “their agency to manage their own health and well-being—as though their struggles to access food or housing were pre-determined and thus unalterable.”

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