Conversations About Suicide: Strategies for Detecting and Assessing Suicide Risk

Sommers‐Flanagan, John

doi:10.1007/bf03544661

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…This belief reflects the pervasive world view of psychologists, as believing in client change is paramount to enacting therapy (Hill, 2014). Participants believed most suicides stem from excruciating psychosocial distress that occludes the perceived availability of options to relieve their pain, which is consistent with modern understandings of suicide (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018). In holding this complex belief, psychologists in this study agreed that most clients can be treated through psychotherapy and see opportunities in their practice to help suicidal clients see choices other than suicide.…”

Section: Research Sub-question 1: How Do Psychologists View Suicidal ...supporting

confidence: 61%

“…Firstly, psychologists should explore collaborative-therapeutic assessment approaches to SRA, such as CAMS . This likely decreases the perceived difficulty of weaving assessment and therapy in SRA, but its novel approach to suicide prevention and prediction is consistent with contemporary research and calls to action (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018;Tucker et al, 2015). Secondly, graduate-level SRA training should be redeveloped and revised to include experiential practice and intentional identification of suicide beliefs.…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 84%

“…This is critical, in light of the fact that best SRA practices have changed significantly over the last decade (Sommers-Flanagan & Shaw, 2017), particularly with a rise in client-centred and collaborative SRA (Schembari et al, 2016). Further, with the growing concern over the validity of information-focused SRA checklists and scales (Chan et al, 2016;Large et al, 2016;Sommers-Flanagan, 2018) and the call to stop using suicide risk factors to categorize clients (Bolton et al, 2012;Nielssen et al, 2017;Tucker et al, 2015), a review of how this knowledge has translated into the community is necessary. Knowing how psychologists experience SRAs may guide the development of training programs and help improve our understanding of how best to treat and view clients who struggle with suicidal ideation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychologists’ Experiences Conducting Suicide Risk Assessments: A Phenomenological Study

Dubue

Hanson

2020

CJCP

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Psychologists conduct suicide risk assessments (SRAs) regularly to identify and prevent clients’ self-harm and risk of death, although little is known about their experiences of the process. In this phenomenological study, five registered psychologists (master’s and doctoral level) were interviewed to explore the essence of their SRA experiences. Psychologists reported weaving tenets of assessment and therapy throughout their SRAs, relying on their clinical intuition, and investing deeply in their suicidal clients. Also, psychologists reported feeling significant anxiety working with suicidal clients, revealing the ways in which the fear of client suicide guides and motivates their SRA practices. While they have an empathic view of suicide, they believe in preventative intervention. They reported feeling pressure from clients and colleagues to conduct ethical and useful SRAs despite receiving what they consider to be insufficient and ineffectual graduate SRA training. Results from this study offer a qualitative foundation for future research on the ethics, training, and practice of SRA.

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Section: Research Sub-question 1: How Do Psychologists View Suicidal ...supporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 84%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychologists’ Experiences Conducting Suicide Risk Assessments: A Phenomenological Study

Dubue

Hanson

2020

CJCP

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“…While asking directly about suicidal ideation is considered best practice, exactly how to do this can be a challenge, as it can be difficult to know exactly what words to use (Sommers-Flanagan, 2018). Across 77 different psychiatrist visits, McCabe et al (2017) found that physicians always used leading, closed-questions to ask about suicidal thoughts, 75% of which utilized a structure that set up a preference for a negative response (e.g.…”

Section: Suicide Ideation Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A discourse analysis of suicide ideation assessment among first year health professional students enrolled in a communications course

Paulus

Al-Khateeb

Lester³

et al. 2023

QHC

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Background: Suicide risk assessments require a complex set of skills around a sensitive matter which can be difficult for providers. Aim: Research investigating communication techniques and the language choices used to assess for suicide ideation is limited. Methods: We analyzed 121 video-recorded and transcribed final exams from a communication skills course for first year health professional students to identify patterns and variation in the language choices made to assess for suicidal ideation in standardized patients exhibiting symptoms of depression. Results: We found that 66 of the 121 (55%) interviews included a suicide assessment. We noted key patterns and variation around when the assessments took place (while exploring depressive symptoms or as a topic shift), how they were prefaced (with ubiquity statements, normalization statements, or expressions of care and concern), and how the question itself was structured (with a negative preference structure, in a non-polar format, or ambiguously). Conclusions: Assessing for suicide is a delicate task for both patients and providers, both of whom may be reluctant to engage around the topic. Utilizing normalization statements as well as statements of care and concern is a good approach to assess suicide idation while exploring depressive symptoms.

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“…Clinicians should aim to not only treat the mental health concerns that gave rise to the attempt, but manage suicidality itself as a distinct issue (Ryan et al, 2010 ; Sommers-Flanagan 2018 ). One method is to explicitly teach patients that strong suicidal impulses represent an abnormal mental state, and train them to recognize and avoid triggers that would lead to that state.…”

Section: Intervention With Suicidal Lgbtq+ Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working With Suicidal and Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth in the Context of Family Rejection

Ream

Peters

2021

J Health Serv Psychol

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LGBTQ+ individuals are at increased risk of suicide. Homelessness further increases the risk, as does family-of-origin rejection. A model that combines suicidal risk factors and minority stress theory is useful in clinical practice. An openness to “hearing” the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals is essential to treatment. An LGBTQ+ affirming therapeutic approach is recommended. It is also frequently helpful to rebuild family relationships and support for the LGBTQ+ individual, particularly with younger youth. Principles of practice are described and illustrated.

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Conversations About Suicide: Strategies for Detecting and Assessing Suicide Risk

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

Psychologists’ Experiences Conducting Suicide Risk Assessments: A Phenomenological Study

Psychologists’ Experiences Conducting Suicide Risk Assessments: A Phenomenological Study

A discourse analysis of suicide ideation assessment among first year health professional students enrolled in a communications course

Working With Suicidal and Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth in the Context of Family Rejection

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