Addressing suicide risk in people with mental disorders

Clinical research by the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and Oxford Health NHS The People Foundation Trust, together with colleagues elsewhere, has developed guidelines to help clinicians identify and treat patients at risk of suicide.

Alternative Approaches to Clinical Practice, published in Willow Leaf Knife Psychiatry , developed by health practitioners and suicide prevention specialists with service users.

The new guidelines aim to reduce risk through a person-centred strategy in which assessment is viewed as a therapeutic process , which aims to identify interventions to improve well-being while developing a personalised safety plan.

Professor Keith Hawton CBE, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Centre for Suicide Research at Oxford University, said: A significant proportion of those who commit suicide suffer from mental illness. Therefore, suicide prevention is a key task for mental health practitioners, but traditionally this has been primarily an attempt to predict suicide risk. Our approach is more focused on risk-addressing treatments approach, should greatly improve patient care and may be beneficial for suicide prevention.”

Karen Lascelles, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust The fund’s nurse advisor and co-lead author of the article, said: “This treatment and collaborative approach to patient safety can help clinicians, patients and patient families better understand when and why patients may become vulnerable, as well as patients and engagement What the people they care for can do to help them stay safe. It should be taught to clinicians in their training and practice, and supported by organisations and regulators.”

Steve Gilbert, co-author of the OBE article, said: “As a survivor of multiple suicide attempts, I am very aware of being told you are at ‘low suicide risk based on risk prediction methods’ The heartbreaking pain of ‘. The importance of a clinician meeting me where I am, acknowledging my situation, and working with me to understand the ways in which we can work together to keep me safe cannot be understated. I believe treatment and empathy assessment can Be the starting point for life-saving relationships.”

The authors highlight the fact that there is substantial evidence from multiple countries that risk prediction largely does not work. They also noted that focusing on risk prediction may undermine efforts to help patients with their problems, a point that has been highlighted by family members and patients themselves.