Urgent and Emergency Care

Urgent and emergency care services include multiple routes of care based on illness or injury severity and urgency. Emergency department care for suicide attempts is described as inconsistent across settings. In an adult suicide-attempt study, only about half of patients had a documented suicide risk assessment in the medical chart. Urgent and emergency care organisation has evolved to separate urgent care from emergency care. Rapid and intensive follow-up after hospital discharge is described as essential because suicide risk peaks in the first three months after discharge. The term anaphylactic shock can obscure whether respiratory failure rather than primary cardiovascular collapse was the true pre-terminal problem. Emergency needs are handled through emergency departments and ambulance services. Urgent needs may be handled through pharmacy advice, same-day GP appointments, triage services, urgent treatment centres, and urgent community response. Emergency departments are central crisis-response settings and often first contact points for distressed youth. Emergency department visits for suicidal ideation or attempts are framed as critical opportunities for identification, refe…