Suicide attempters and suicide completers are different populations.<p>In any given emergency room, the docs personally know a population of "frequent fliers" who regularly attempt suicide and have other psychiatric emergencies. Thus they don't take suicide attempts seriously at all.<p>In the rare case of a serious attempter (who's on the track to be a completer) they will send them home, get them a referral to psychological help, they go home and read up on suicide methods, then they complete.