Rally the Troops: Interdisciplinary Response to a Veteran Who Attempted Suicide on a Veterans Affairs Hospice Unit

Requests for hastened death and suicidal ideation may be more prevalent in populations approaching the end of life. Often these wishes and thoughts occur in the context of concurrent psychiatric disorders and emotional suffering. We discuss the case of a veteran with terminal lung cancer and comorbid psychiatric illness who attempted suicide while under the care of an inpatient interdisciplinary hospice team and describe our team's response to this suicide attempt. We review risk factors for suicidality at end of life, challenges of distinguishing desire for hastened death from suicidality, and the ethics of resuscitation of a dying patient after a suicide attempt.