Authors: (including presenting author): :
HO YK(1), CHAN LL(1), HUNG KPY(1), CHAN FM(1), CHEUNG HF(1), POON TK(1)
Affiliation: :
(1) Department of Psychiatry, Kowloon Hospital
Keyword 1: :
Suicide Prevention
Keyword 2: :
Psychogeriatric
Keyword 3: :
Safety Planning
Keyword 4: :
Coping Strategies
Keyword 5: :
Empowering Intervention
Keyword 6: :
Risk Management
Introduction: :
Suicide in the elderly is a critical public health concern. The Safety Planning Intervention (SPI) is an evidence-based, brief intervention for mitigating suicide risk. Integrating this intervention into existing psychogeriatric community services represents a valuable opportunity for enhancing care quality.
Objectives: :
This single-site pilot aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a culturally integrated care model that embeds the SPI into the established ESPP. The model’s core component was a co-created patient tool, the “Safe Navigation” leaflet, designed to structure and guide the clinical safety planning dialogue.
Methodology: :
This project was conducted within the ESPP of Kowloon Hospital, with institutional support from April 2025, utilizing the SPI framework with the authors’ permission, the Associate Nurse Consultant trained the outreach nursing team to implement safety planning during home visits and clinic follow-ups. Participants comprised approximately 15 elderly with suicidal risk and mood problems who were clinically stable for community-based care, along with their caregivers. The intervention involved completing the co-developed “Safe Navigation” (安心導航) leaflet. All care was embedded within a structured pathway where acutely high-risk individuals would be immediately referred to emergency services.
Result & Outcome: :
The clinical-led implementation of SPI yielded positive feedback, with clients and caregivers consistently reporting a strengthened sense of safety and partnership following the planning sessions. The collaborative process activated clients’ latent resilience, enabling them to identify personalized coping strategies and key support contacts — co-creating a practical toolkit for future distress. Furthermore, clients demonstrated an increased awareness of their personal early warning signs. Nursing staff reported increased confidence in structured risk management. The primary implementation focus was balancing the depth of the safety planning dialogue with the time-intensive outreach visits schedule. A parallel digital data entry attempt highlighted workflow integration as a future consideration. A significant output was the successful development of the leaflet, a Chinese patient education tool that translates abstract SPI steps into practical guidance embedded with local cultural metaphors (e.g., “Rainstorms pass, clear skies return”). These findings demonstrate the successful pilot of a care model that transforms risk assessment into a therapeutic, empowering intervention, with the “Safe Navigation” leaflet as its keystone tool. Future work will quantify outcomes and refine the model for broader implementation.
