I love the title of J. Christopher Fowler’s article that was published in the current issue (vol 49, issue 1) of Psychotherapy, “Suicide Risk Assessment in Clinical Practice: Pragmatic Guidelines for Imperfect Assessments.” This practice review is thorough and wise. Fowler strikes just the balance between encouraging completeness and responsibility, and acknowledging the limits inherent in [...]
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Thorough and practical article about means-restriction counseling (finally!)
November 11, 2011
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I am a huge fan of Craig Bryan. He, Sharon Stone, and David Rudd (another person whose work I really admire) have just published an article titled, “A Practical, Evidence-Based Approach for Means-Restriction Counseling With Suicidal Patients.” I know I will be recommending this article a lot. Questions about means restriction come up just about [...]
Read morePreparing my presentation for AAS 2010
March 18, 2010
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I’m preparing my presentation for the April 2010 American Association of Suicidology annual conference, which will be held in Orlando, Florida. My presentation is titled “Evaluation of Commitment to Living: a brief training to address suicide risk assessment and management.” I’m enjoying the preparations because I’m planning to present entirely using mindmaps on my curriculum which [...]
Read moreSpeaking of nomenclature…what about “protective factors”?
October 23, 2008
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Speaking of nomenclature, I’m increasingly growing mistrustful of the term “protective factors.” It sounds very “evidence-based” to refer to “risk and protective factors” when discussing one’s approach to risk assessment. However, I’ve noticed a subtle misunderstanding that has creeped in along with the popularity of these terms. Often, it sounds like some clinicians are thinking [...]
Read moreA better term for “high risk”?
October 22, 2008
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At a recent workshop I presented, a senior colleague commented that our clinical vernacular needs a more apt phrase than “high risk” to describe individuals whose clinical and historical presentation suggests risk for suicide. “High risk for suicide,” he pointed out, sounds like suicide is probable, when in fact the likelihood of suicide in [...]
Read moreTeaching and learning at New York State psychiatric facilities
April 28, 2008
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I’ve returned from a fascinating series of trips to two New York State psychiatric facilities (St. Lawrence Psychiatric and Pilgrim Psychiatric), as part of a project I’m working on with the Office of Mental Health. I learned a great deal from talking about suicide risk with over 500 clinicians from a variety of disciplines and [...]
Read moreConversation with Michelle Lang, Ph.D. of RFMH
September 18, 2007
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I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago with Michelle Lang, PhD, a colleague with the New York State Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene. RFMH is essentially the research and program evaluation arm of the NYS Office of Mental Health. Dr. Lang has completed a pilot study on the feasibility of routine suicidality screening [...]
Read moreThoughts about SAD PERSONS Screen
August 27, 2007
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I’ve gotten a few questions from colleagues and trainees lately about using the SADPERSONS screen. Most recently, a colleague pointed me to an article in Psychiatric Times titled, “APA: Simple Screen Improves Suicide Risk Assessment.” The topic seems worthy of a post to think through both the appeal and risks of the SADPERSONS scale. For [...]
Read morePossible implications of findings re: visual memory
August 27, 2007
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Readers of this blog know that I am interested in mindmapping and other visual presentation strategies as tools for training clinicians in suicide risk assessment (see related posts listed below). In a previous post marked “needs development” I noted: Really, there is a “basic science” set of questions about learning and the clinician mind that [...]
Read moreConversation with Paul Quinnett, Founder/CEO of QPR
August 1, 2007
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I talked yesterday with Paul Quinnett, Ph.D. Founder and CEO of the QPR Institute. He has been working in the field of suicide prevention for decades and has developed an excellent set of tools for clinicians. I enjoyed the conversation because Dr. Quinnett is bright, experienced, and passionate about his work, and also because of [...]
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