Suicide Safety Assessment and Management in Clinical Practice

Presented by: Dr. Sophie Liljedahl

In self-harm and suicide research and practice there has been a change in recent years from a focus on suicide risk prediction to therapeutic assessment and safety management. This progression is supported by meta-analytic research, clinical guidelines from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and a Personal View article published by expert suicidologists (Hawton et al., 2022). This research advances the assessment and treatment of self-harming and suicidal individuals by emphasizing the clinical utility of Safety Planning Type Interventions (SPTIs). Based on data from Statistics Canada, this presentation summarizes the scope of self-harm and suicide nationally. The components of risk management, formulation, and safety planning are presented. Two SPTI protocols are compared and summarized with recommendations regarding their application in clinical practice: a generalized protocol suitable for community mental health settings, and a more specialized protocol for individuals presenting with pervasive suicidality and self-harm.

Reference

Hawton, K., Lascelles, K. M., Pitman, A. L., Gilbert, S. P., & Silverman, M. M. (2022). Assessment of suicide risk in mental health practice: Shifting from prediction to therapeutic assessment, formulation, and risk management. The Lancet Psychiatry, 9(11), 912-922. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(22)00232-2