Stock-piling medication or obtaining other possible means of suicide. Elder suicide occurs all along the post-acute continuum. There has been some attention, but not very much. Much can be done to keep individuals from becoming suicidal. Much can be done to keep those who become suicidal from becoming victims.
Assisted suicide is a form of elder suicide, and part of the problem.
Suicide is often felt to be a strategy for regaining control among those who feel they have lost control to depression, illness, and pain. Fear of severe pain drives requests to physicians for assisted deaths. Pain clinics report many cases where adequate pain management has led to an abatement of suicidal behavior in patients with severe pain. Inadequately controlled severe pain has been identified as a problem among many who complete suicide. Internet and E-Mail Resources on Aging Another AOA resource listing sites by discipline or subject by country.