Or “PDW” when I’ve got 2 minutes to write down your life story before moving on to the next patient in handoff. It’s not uncommon for me to scribble down something to the effect of:

“PDW w/o plan iso ++life stress” (passive death wish without plan in the setting of multiple life stressors)

…multiple times per assignment. Like out of a six-patient assignment for the night I’ll probably write that at least twice.

If it’s only one specific stressor or I’m not too pressed for time I may specify. Common specific stressors include:

• homeless (most common)
• job loss
• SO/mom/dad/sis/bro/pet/fam died (usually only one buuut)
• charges
• SUD (substance use disorder)
• chronic ill.

…but yeah people be checking into the psych ward for passive death wishes that all the time. 9/10 times the stressor is homelessness and realistically they’re exaggerating a little for 3 hots and a cot but I probably would too tbh and I also really don’t wanna live in a world where we gotta question the validity of somebody’s expressed suicidal ideation.