From early on in my quest to understand the unique challenges mental health professionals face in working with patients at risk for suicide, I’ve wondered aloud about the things that make us the most nervous. I’m still working my way through a list of questions I posted based on my notes from a series of [...]
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“Trusting” a person at risk who agrees to transport self
September 2, 2008
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A colleague forwarded me the following excellent question posted to a listserv: One question that has been raised is how to handle an individual who reports willingness to voluntarily go to the ER for psychiatric assessment. Since trusting a questionably unstable and suicidal individual to present for treatment opens our agency and the patient up [...]
Read moreOrganizational factors that support care of suicidal person
March 7, 2007
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Wendi Cross, a gifted and innovative colleague in our department, presented at our Family Research Roundtable yesterday. One of the ways she is contributing to the field is to raise awareness about, and develop methodology to study, the factors surrounding implementation of an evidence-based intervention (be it training, prevention, or therapeutic intervention) that influence its [...]
Read moreClinician response to violation of the “social contract”
February 7, 2007
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I had a stimulating conversation with a senior colleague in the CSPS yesterday. One part of the conversation centered around what happens for us, as clinicians, when the patient does not fulfill his/her end of the “social contract” that is implied when someone goes to a mental health professional. The assumed contract is that the [...]
Read moreRisk and patient choice
January 25, 2007
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It’s hard enough to assess for suicidal risk, interview, reach a formulation, and develop a plan that matches the risk level. But what do you do when the client does not agree to the plan? It is difficult to manage one’s emotions, and difficult to know how to proceed. This is especially true when the [...]
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