Clinical model for suicide risk assessment

The assessment of an individual's risk for suicide is one of the clinician's most challenging tasks. Recent advances in both research and theory on suicide offer some guidelines to those who work with suicidal patients, including viewing risk assessment us an ongoing feature of treatment. Assessment is presented in a two-tiered model comprising background/contextual factors and subjectivity. The clinical assessment of subjectivity is formulated around Shneidman's (1985) concepts of perturbation and lethulity. The decision regarding hospital admission versus ambulatory care is also discussed. A theoretically informed approach to assessment should serve both interview and me traditional psychological assessment methods.