Doctors Need to Talk to Families About Guns and Dementia

A Kaiser Health News investigation with PBS NewsHour published in June detailed more than 100 cases in the United States since 2012 in which persons with dementia used guns to kill themselves or others, reports the New York Times . The shooters often acted while wracked with confusion, paranoia, delusion, or aggression, and ended up shooting spouses, children, and caregivers. Despite this, healthcare providers across the nation say they have not received sufficient guidance on whether, when, and how to counsel families on gun safety. A lack of data on national gun safety translates to no scientific standards for when a healthcare provider should discuss gun access for people with cognitive impairment or at what point in the disease's progression a person becomes unfit to handle a gun. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Colleen Christmas notes firearms are the most common method of suicide among seniors. Following the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, more than 1,300 healthcare providers publicly vowed to ask customers about gun ownership and gun safety when risk factors exist. The University of California, Davis' Violence Prevention Research Program has now developed a tool kit to offer health professionals guidance on lowering the risk of gun violence. Issues that doctors and family members should be aware of is the fact that neither state nor federal law prohibit health professionals from raising the issue of gun safety, while the Veterans Health Administration recommends asking about firearms as part of a safety screening when "investigating or establishing the suspected diagnosis of dementia."