Styles of Suicide Intervention: Professionals' Responses and Clients' Preferences.

As the rates of suicide in America continue to rise, suicide recently has been declared to be a national public health concern. The crisis intervention model, which has dominated the treatment of suicidal individuals in America since the 1950s, is currently believed to be the most effective model for suicide intervention. This study examined this belief by taking a more complex look at professionals' responses to suicidal clients both by investigating the existence of different ways in which professionals interpret the crisis intervention model. In one interpretation (the fight response), the professional takes power and agency away from the client and does what is perceived to be best for the client. An alternate interpretation, the ideal response, allows for a respectful engagement with the client. Professionals also can act contrary to the model (i.e., the flight response). In addition, based on the humanistic notion that clients are the experts of their own experience and that their voices are...