g-Chung Chen

The suitability of the BSRS-5 for assessing elderly who have attempted suicide and need to be referred for professional mental health consultation in a metropolitan city, Taiwan

The goals of this study are to (1) investigate the prevalence of necessary referral for professional mental health consultation for elderly people who attempted suicide (“suicide‐attempted”) in Kaohsiung city, Taiwan during 2006–2007, (2) assess whether the 5‐item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS‐5) can be used as an efficient screening instrument for assessing the probability of a second suicide attempt among the elderly, and (3) examine predictors of needing referral among the suicide‐attempted.

Evaluation of the Suicide Prevention Program in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Using the CIPP Evaluation Model

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Kaohsiung Suicide Prevention Center (KSPC) of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, during the period from June 2005 to June 2008. We used a modified CIPP evaluation model to evaluate the suicide prevention program in Kaohsiung. Four evaluation models were applied to evaluate the KSPC: a context evaluation of the background and origin of the center, an input evaluation of the resources of the center, a process evaluation of the activities of the suicide prevention project, and a product evaluation of the ascertainment of project objectives. The context evaluation revealed that the task of the KSPC is to lower mortality. The input evaluation assessed the efficiency of manpower and the grants supported by Taiwan’s Department of Health and Kaohsiung City government’s Bureau of Health. In the process evaluation, we inspected the suicide prevention strategies of the KSPC, which are a modified version of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy of Australia. In the product evaluation, four major objectives were evaluated: (1) the suicide rate in Kaohsiung, (2) the reported suicidal cases, (3) crisis line calls, and (4) telephone counseling. From 2005 to 2008, the number of telephone counseling sessions (1,432, 2,010, 7,051, 12,517) and crisis line calls (0, 4,320, 10,339, 14,502) increased. Because of the increase in reported suicidal cases (1,328, 2,625, 2,795, and 2,989, respectively), cases which were underreported in the past, we have increasingly been able to contact the people who need help. During this same time period, the half-year suicide re-attempt rate decreased significantly for those who received services, and the committed suicide rate (21.4, 20.1, 18.2, and 17.8 per 100,000 populations, respectively) also decreased. The suicide prevention program in Kaohsiung is worth implementing on a continual basis if financial constraints are addressed.

Quality of life and its associated factors among patients with two common types of chronic mental illness living in Kaohsiung City

Aim:  This study explored the associations of personal, disease, family, and social factors with quality of life (QoL) in patients with two common types of chronic mental illness (CMI) living in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

A Comparison of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Survivors of the Chi-Chi Earthquake and Morakot Flood

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) in survivor of the Morakot Flood and the Chi-Chi Earthquake. Methods: We surveyed 771 survivors (337 males and 434 females, with an average age of 42.0±15.2 years of age) 15 months after the Morakot Flood in southern Taiwan and compared the statistics with the previous data for 461 victims (209 males and 252 females, with an average age of 54.3±18.1 years of age) in a village close to the epicenter in central Taiwan 21 months after the Chi-Chi Earthquake. This study compared the prevalence of the PTSSs occurrence after those two different natural disasters. Results: We found that in this study there were significant differences in the demographic data between the two groups, and that no significant statistical variances existed in PTSSs (6.9% vs. 5.0%) or in the re-experience category (20.3% vs. 23.4%). We also found that the survivors of the Morakot Flood reported a significantly higher prevalence (15.3% vs. 10.4%, X^2=5.57, p=0.02) in avoidance and numbness categories of PTSSs, but that Chi-Chi Earthquake survivors reported a significantly higher prevalence (4.0% vs. 19.7%, X^2=71.10, p＜0.001) in the hyperarousal category of PTSSs. Conclusion: Both disasters caused a high prevalence of PTSSs. The observed prevalence can be served as the basis for estimating of the number of medical and psychological professionals required to treat the affected population and for the variance analysis of finding out potential causes.

The Characteristics of Severe Mentally lll Patients Who Need Forced Hospitalization before and after the Amended Mental Health Act in Taiwan

Objectives: The Amended Mental Health Act (AMHA) in Taiwan became effective on July 4, 2008. In this research, we aimed to identify the characteristics of severe mental illness (SMI) patients who needed forced hospitalization before and after the implementing of the AMHA. Method: Kai-Suan Psychiatric Hospital is the only government civilian psychiatric hospital in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This 820- bed hospital is accounted for about 70% of the psychiatric beds in the city of Kaohsiung. After implementing AMHA, we used the psychiatrist-rated battery to collect psychopathological symptoms from medical records to collect demographic data and a psychiatric history of 146 SMI inpatients who were admitted involuntarily for seven months. Before implementing AMHA, we also collected data from 224 SMI inpatients who were admitted in the same period in 2007 as the control group. The collected information included patients’ nationality, educational level, marital status, age of onset, the number of previous admissions, and the number of forced hospitalization. Results: Compared with the control group, the involuntarily admitted inpatients after the implementing the AMHA showed significant differences in their psychiatric symptoms, of more tension and less motor hyperactivity (p=0.007), distractibility (p=0.006), suspiciousness (p=0.036), and grandiosity (p=0.044). Significant differences were also found in the types of violence in more destructive behavior (p=0.008), and less verbal aggression (p=0.016). Conclusion: The AMHA was implemented, the number of forced involuntary admissions has been decreased by two-thirds compared to the year before. Based on this finding, we suggest that stricter or different criteria are used by psychiatrists in the AMHA.

A Simple, Small-Sized Protection Diode Design to Aimprove ESD Survivability on 2μm Ingap HBT Devices

ESD is a well-known reliability aspect in Si technologies, but GaAs devices are more susceptible to ESD damage than the silicon devices. In this study, the ESD survivability of the InGaP HBT transistors and the B-C, B-E/C and BE protect diodes was evaluated. After ESD protection circuits on chip level been investigated, the authors then established a simply B-E diode protection circuit with only 10μmx10μm area to improve ESD survivability of the 2-finger 2μmx20μm HBT transistor from 50V to over 2000V.