Addressing suicidal ideation in oncology patients

e13534 Background: The diagnosis of cancer leads to worsening a patient’s physical, mental, personal stressors and inevitably can lead to patients questioning their mortality. Cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States, and the diagnosis and treatment of cancer can be very difficult for patients from a physical, psychosocial, and financial perspective. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and risk factors for suicide include family history of suicide, previous suicide attempts, feelings of hopelessness, and depression. In addition to these important risk factors, a recent study including 8.6 million cancer patients showed that risk of suicide is four times greater in cancer patients than the general population. Despite this elevated risk, the detection of cancer patients at highest risk of suicide is poor and there are limited resources to help providers risk stratify cancer patients at highest risk of suicide. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study of Portland VA oncology providers (physicians, housestaff, advanced practice providers, nurses and social workers) to determine the frequency in which those providers work with oncology patients struggling with suicidal ideation, the frequency of screening completed by the oncology providers, and the barriers to screening patients for suicidal ideation during a regular office visit. Qualtrics surveys were sent to all VA oncology providers. A significance test for proportions was utilized to determine the statistical validity of the results. Results: A total of 22 providers completed the survey. The majority of respondents were MD/DOs (n=13 We showed that most providers have cared for patients affected by suicidal ideation including attempted suicide and completed suicide attempts (p < 0.05). While most providers answered that they had screened patients for suicide before all respondents noted significant barriers to screening patients. The majority of respondents identified multiple barriers to addressing suicidality with almost all respondents included “not enough time” as one of the barriers. Other prominent barriers included, “unsure of next steps”, “not having proper tools to assess”, “not having expertise to assess”. Conclusions: Our study showed that most oncology providers will care for patients affected by suicidal ideation during their career. In addition it shows that while many providers have screened patients for suicidal ideation, most providers face significant barriers to doing so during a clinic visit. Our study contributes to the current body of knowledge by identifying the significant barriers faced in the providers in the Portland VA oncology clinic.