Lower suicide rates associated with a Tele-Help/Tele-Check service for the elderly at home.
OBJECTIVE
The authors' goal was to determine the impact on suicidal behavior of Tele-Help/Tele-Check, a telephone service designed to provide elderly people with home assistance. Tele-Help is an alarm system that the client can activate to call for help; in Tele-Check the client is contacted about twice a week for assessment of needs and for emotional support.


METHODS
The authors determined the number of suicides among 12,135 elderly subjects who were connected to the Tele-Help/Tele-Check service in the Veneto region of Italy from Jan. 1, 1988, to Dec. 31, 1991, and compared it with the suicide rate for the general population in the Veneto region.


RESULTS
Only one death by suicide was found in the elderly subjects connected to Tele-Help/Tele-Check, compared with the expected number of 7.44 for the general population (standardized mortality ratio = 13.44%).


CONCLUSIONS
Since many of the traditional risk factors for suicide were concentrated in the elderly subjects studied, the Tele-Help/Tele-Check service appears to provide support of great interest for the prevention of suicide in the elderly.
De Leo
D
D
Psychogeriatric Service, University of Padua School of Medicine, Italy.
Carollo
G
G
Dello Buono
M
M
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003419:Crisis Intervention; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000092864:Suicide Prevention