Getting depressed people out of their depression without them killing themselves.
Often people have grave psychological problems that make their lifes hell, but also prevent them from suicide.
When they get their motivation and energy back, they use it to make save they don't fall back.
I'm sorry for your loss.
> You get someone who is severely depressed, like to the point of hospitalization, and when they are absolutely crippled with psychomotor retardation, that's not when you worry about suicide.
> This is someone who's having enough trouble getting out of bed and getting dressed each day. They're not going to figure out how to shred the hospital mattress and make a noose out of it.
> Where you've got your problems is when somebody begins to get better from a severe depression. When they're starting to come out, that's where the psychomotor retardation relieves enough that suddenly they've got the energy to do something catastrophic. That's when people are on suicide watches (when you have clinicians who are oriented well).
In the hours, days, and sometimes weeks before suicide, their depression was gone, their insular thoughts vanish, and a deep peacefulness and a period of lucidity that exceeds any capability for such wisdom and thoughtfulness beforehand was visible.
I dislike having seen enough to spot this pattern.