Assessment and intervention with someone who is potentially suicidal is extremely difficult, even for a well trained mental health professional. Safety can never be guaranteed, full information is never available, and follow-up options are always limited. Hospitalizing every patient who is potentially suicidal is both impractical and often counter-productive. Suicide risk/rating scales have been demonstrated to have very limited predictive validity. This workshop will discuss the process of suicide risk assessment, and some practical suggestions about how to decrease risk. You will learn how to 1) have a better understanding of how to conduct an assessment for suicide risk, 2) understand how to assess risk, 3) understand steps that can decrease suicide risk in the crisis situation.
Target Audience:
Anyone practicing in the mental health field will have contact with suicidal individuals. This workshop gives the participant an overview of demographics, assessment issues and techniques for managing the suicidal client.
Outline:
1. Overview of demographic statistics related to suicide
2. Discussion of risk factors relative to suicide
3. Use of examples to highlight risk with individuals
4. General considerations and co-morbid conditions with suicidal ideation
5. Completing the suicide assessment
6. Developing the treatment plan
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Understand the demographics related to suicide and suicidal risk
Know the factors predicting risk for suicide
Have a clinical process to investigate suicidal ideation with an individual
Understand the components of an effective suicide assessment
Create a treatment plan for individuals with suicidal ideation
Faculty:
Dr. Ron Diamond, MS, MD
Dr. Ron Diamond, MS, MD, for more than 25 years has been involved in the community-based treatment of persons with severe and persistent mental illness. Over the years this has included issues of staff training, staff roles, ethics, role of coercion, medication compliance, psychiatric administration and system design. He has also been very involved in how to teach non-medical staff, consumers and their families about psychotropic medication. His current research focuses on the quality of life of people with psychiatric disability. He is increasingly interested in how to integrate concepts of recovery and cultural competence into day-to-day clinical competence. The Mental Health Center of Dane County, one of the core training sites for psychiatry residents, is a national model in community psychiatry providing culturally competent services to both children and adults. He has written two books on psychopharmacology including "Instant Psychopharmacology" (2002).