"Scappo saltando dalla finestra": suicidio, tentato suicidio o semplice desiderio di tornare a casa? Riflessioni su una casistica in residenze sanitarie assistenziali"

Suicides notoriously increase with age, but the number of scientific articles focusing on the phenomenon of attempted/implemented suicides by older people is, for different reasons, much lower than those published in this regard for the young age group. In the literature, however, various suicidal risk factors are reported in the elderly, including isolation, loneliness, chronic/disabling diseases, depression, dementia. A risk factor also seems to be the placement in a welfare structure, a circumstance that is still little studied and underestimated. The present work, through the presentation of a limited series of cases, intends to investigate the phenomenon of attempted/implemented suicides occurred in Healthcare Residences shortly after insertion.The different diagnoses posed had all depressive connotations, known as a suicidal risk factor. In order to define "suicide" it is necessary that the fatal outcome must be wanted and foreseen by the subject, so we wondered if this requirement was effectively present in the patients of our casuistry or if, precisely because of the traumatic fracture of their daily life due to insertion into the structure, they wanted only to give a cry for help through an impulsive and incongruous gesture, to jump out of the window, in order to return home.The moment of acceptance in the structure seems in any case to be a particularly delicate moment and requires the utmost attention from all the health workers involved, even and especially to prevent the risk of suicide.