Firearms, mental illness, dementia and the clinician

Wand, Anne; Peisah, Carmelle; Strukovski, Julie-Anne; Brodaty, Henry

doi:10.5694/mja13.11318

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This finding suggests a significant gap in practice that may be associated with health care professional uncertainty or concerns about alienating patients, although prior work16 suggests that patients are open to respectful firearm safety counseling in appropriate contexts. Health care professional training, materials, and resources[16][17][18] may facilitate more routine firearm safety counseling for persons with dementia and their families. When asked where they would turn for answers to firearm safety questions, caregivers identified health care professionals as an important source: 10% said they had already looked to them for help, and 53% said they would in the future.Official policies or guidance by health care organizations, such as the Veterans Health Administration,17 as well as templates to prompt and document counseling 19 may encourage and support health care professionals.In this sample, caregivers reported that many persons with dementia who owned firearms had no plan for what to do with the guns if their illness made it unsafe to handle them.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Views on Firearm Safety Among Caregivers of People With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias

et al. 2020

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IMPORTANCE The population of adults with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) is increasing, and many people with ADRD have access to firearms. Little is known, however, about how caregivers of people with ADRD think about or address firearm safety. OBJECTIVE To assess views on firearm safety risks among caregivers of persons with ADRD, experiences of caregivers with health care professional-delivered counseling, and their preferred sources of information about firearm safety. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This survey study used a probability-based online survey (National Firearms Survey, July 30 to August 11, 2019) with weights used to generate nationally representative estimates of adults living in households with firearms to assess firearm safety views of English-speaking adults 35 years or older. Respondents for the National Firearm Survery were drawn from I KnowledgePanel, a frame with approximately 55 000 US adults selected on an ongoing basis using address-based sampling methods. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Caregivers were asked whether the person with ADRD owned or had access to firearms. Additional ADRD-related measures assessed perceptions about the likelihood of types of firearm injuries involving people with ADRD, support for firearm safety counseling by health care professionals with regard to dementia, and history of ever having received such counseling. RESULTS Of 6712 invited panel members, 4030 completed the survey (completion rate, 65%). For this analysis, we excluded the youngest participants (aged 18-34 years; n = 498); among the remaining 3532 participants, 124 reported being caregivers for persons with ADRD. Of the 124 caregivers, 51% were female and the mean (SD) age was 60 (12.5) years. Most participants (71%; 95% CI, 69%-72%) thought that a person with ADRD was more likely to hurt someone else unintentionally than intentionally hurt themselves or someone else. Many participants thought health care professionals should always (45%; 95% CI, 43%-47%) or sometimes (34%; 95% CI, 32%-37%) talk about firearm safety with caregivers or patients with dementia, but only 5% of caregivers (95% CI, 2%-12%) reported that a health care professional had ever spoken to them about firearm safety. Among the 41% (95% CI, 31%-51%) of caregivers who lived with a person with dementia, 31% (95% CI, 18%-49%) said the person with dementia could access firearms in the home. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this study, few caregivers of adults with ADRD reported having received health care professional counseling about firearm safety, although most thought health care professionals should provide such counseling. These findings raise concerns about home firearm (continued) Key Points Question What proportion of adults living in homes with firearms are caregivers for people with Alzheimer Open Access. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

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Views on Firearm Safety Among Caregivers of People With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias

et al. 2020

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“…In reply : There was a transcription error in our article 1 . The rate of licensed firearm ownership in Australia in 2001 was indeed 3.9 per 100 people, 2 although this is likely to be an underestimate, as unregistered, unlicensed and illegal firearms are not captured by official statistics.…”

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confidence: 90%

“…We acknowledged the ethical implications of doctors having a role in assessing suitability for firearm licences 1 . However, there is already an expectation that doctors should notify police when concerns about risk to the community or individuals arise from a patient's access to firearms 3 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Firearms, mental illness, dementia and the clinican

Wand

Peisah

2015

Medical Journal of Australia

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“…To the Editor : In their recent article in the Journal, Wand and colleagues suggest that the medical profession should play a more active role in the regulation of firearm licences held by older Australians 1 . However, the authors underestimate the rate of firearm ownership in Australia by a factor of 1000 when they state that 3.9 per 100 000 people held a firearm license in 2001.…”

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confidence: 99%