Use of emergency services for suicide attempts during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-a prevalence study

Background: The pandemic has caused several changes in the emergency care system. The deployment figures in emergency medical services have shown atypical fluctuations. This has also been explained by changes in behavior and an increased sense of stress among the population. Existing research provides hints for the increased incidence of mental health symptoms in emergency care during ongoing pandemics.Objective: In this context, this paper examines the occurrence of emergency medical services calls related to the keyword suicide in relation to total calls.Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study based on routine documentation from a fire and rescue dispatch center with descriptive and exploratory data analyses. The data are divided by settlement-structural county types and compared with incidences and pandemic phases.Results: Phase 1 and 2a show a decrease in the number of dispatches during the pandemic. In addition, there is a shift in the number of dispatch cases with a context of suicide by structure types in phase 3. A decreased dispatch rate in the sparsely populated rural county is offset by an increase in the metropolitan area. Changes made to the control center system resulted in an increase in the number of dispatch cases in the context of suicide.Conclusion: Continuous mental health surveillance, including data collected by emergency medical services, can provide valuable insight. The study also highlights the need for standardization of emergency dispatch center data.