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Suicide Risk Assessment and Risk Formulation Part I: A Focus on Suicide Ideation in Assessing Suicide Risk
Author(s) -
Silverman Morton M.,
Berman Alan L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/sltb.12065
Subject(s) - suicide risk , suicidal ideation , triage , suicide prevention , risk assessment , psychology , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , suicide attempt , medical emergency , risk analysis (engineering) , medicine , psychiatry , computer science , computer security
The main procedure used by clinicians to determine whether an individual may be at risk of suicidal behaviors is the suicide risk assessment (SRA). The purpose of the SRA is to identify risk and protective factors that then provide the data for the formulation of suicide risk. The suicide risk formulation (SRF) assigns a level of suicide risk that ideally leads to triage and treatment deemed appropriate for that level of risk. Some of the problems with the SRA are explored here, with an emphasis on addressing the over reliance on communicated suicide ideation, and recommendations are made for improvements. Part II of this article (Berman & Silverman, 2013, also appears in this issue of STLB ) examines the process of an SRF and, similarly, makes recommendations to improve clinical practice toward the desired end of saving lives.