Konrad Michel, a leading psychiatrist and acclaimed expert, draws on decades of experience to offer necessary new ways of understanding—and preventing—suicide. After one of his first patients died by suicide, Michel devoted himself to researching self-harm. Writing vividly and personally, he recounts more than forty years of working with and learning from suicidal patients. Michel shows that suicide is not just a consequence of mental illness but an action related to a person’s life story. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with suicidal patients, he argues that suicide and suicide attempts occur when someone experiences extreme emotional pain that severely impairs the ability to think and act rationally. Based on this understanding, Michel and his colleagues developed a person-centered approach to treatment that overcomes the limitations of the traditional medical model. Through a brief therapy, patients find a personally meaningful narrative understanding of their suicidal thoughts and impulses. People at risk can learn to recognize their vulnerabilities in order to manage potentially life-threatening situations and keep themselves safe. Michel emphasizes the importance of communication: medical professionals need to connect with patients as individuals to identify specific warning signs. Both compassionate and rigorous, this book provides vital insight into suicide prevention and shows how changing attitudes will help save lives. It includes practical advice for people at risk, with special emphasis on young people, as well as for relatives and health professionals.

Helping the Suicidal Person provides a highly practical toolbox for mental health professionals. The book first covers the need for professionals to examine their own personal experiences and fears around suicide, moves into essential areas of risk assessment, safety planning, and treatment planning, and then provides a rich assortment of tips for reducing the person’s suicidal danger and rebuilding the wish to live. The techniques described in the book can be interspersed into any type of therapy, no matter what the professional’s theoretical orientation is and no matter whether it’s the client’s first, tenth, or one-hundredth session. Clinicians don’t need to read this book in any particular order, or even read all of it. Open the book to any page, and find a useful tip or technique that can be applied immediately.

This title is directed primarily towards health care professionals outside of the United States. This book is based on a three year qualitative study (a study that was funded by the United Kingdom Department of Health) that investigated how psychiatric nurses provided care for suicidal people. Drawing on service user data, this book contains and explains an evidence-based (empirically induced) theory of how to care for suicidal people. Far from being an esoteric theory with no clinical applicability, the findings captured in this book are grounded in the reality of day-to-day practice. Furthermore, in addition to tracing the role of nurses in caring for suicidal people, the authors use their findings to launch into formal level issues regarding future research, education and policy; as well as focusing on the ethical issues involved in care of the suicidal person. The authors close by shifting the focus on 'suicide survivors' and with the help of contributing aithors. As the eminent suicidology scholars who have generously provided their Forewords note - this is a must-read book for anyone involved in the care of the suicidal person.

Suicide is a complex problem which is linked to socioeconomic problems as well as mental stress and illness. Healthcare professionals now know that the essential component of the suicidal person’s state of crisis is of a psychological and emotional nature. How to Help the Suicidal Person to Choose Life is a detailed guide to suicide prevention. The book recommends ethic of care and empathy as a tool for suicide intervention. Readers will learn about approaches that focus on suicide prevention that address the despairing emotional mind set of the suicidal person. Key features: • Features easy to understand learning guides for students • Emphasizes on suicide intervention strategies rather than identification of risk factors • highlights information from narrative case studies and psychological autopsies • includes practice and simulation exercises designed to enhance therapeutic modalities such as empathy, compassion, unconditional positive regard, connection, therapeutic alliance, the narrative action theoretical approach and mindful listening • Contains guidelines prescribed by the Aeschi working group for clinicians • Provides a list of bibliographic references and an appendix for other resources of information useful for suicide prevention This book is recommended for students and practicing professionals (in medicine, psychiatry, nursing, psychiatric nursing, psychology, counselling, teaching, social work, the military, police, paramedics etc.), and other first responders, volunteers or outreach workers who are confronted with situations where they have to assist people who are known or suspected of being suicidal.

Almost a million people die by suicide every year (WHO estimate) The sheer numbers have made suicide prevention a major health target, but effective prevention is not straightforward. Suicide is a complex event, more complex than most of us imagine, calling for an equally complex response. Psychotherapy with Suicidal People provides a multi-component approach, with rich clinical data including many case histories, to guide the reader. Based on decades of research from across the globe, Antoon A. Leenaars takes the reader into the mind of the suicidal person, from the young to the elderly, from the anonymous to the famous. There is no better way to know, and thus to treat, a person. A plethora of special features makes this volume an international classic and includes: Reflections of many suicidologists such as Heraclitus, Plato, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim and Edwin Shneidman. A unique window on the clinical mind of the author. Empirically supported definition, with applications across age, gender, historical time, as well as culture. The report of the International Working Group on Ethical and Legal Issues in Suicidology. Psychotherapy with Suicidal People: A Person-centred Approach is essential reading for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and their trainees, and all clinicians who work with suicidal people.

This volume discusses the legal, psychological, medical and forensic issues involved in investigating and trying cases involving suicide and life insurance claims. It also contains practical advice for lawyers representing plaintiffs and defendant insurers.

The landmark text in death education, providing an interdisciplinary approach to understanding death and the dying process. Using case examples and exercises, students can reflect upon their own experiences with death. I have found no better text on the market that deals as fully and as completely with issues of death as Kastenbaum's Death, Society, and Human Experience. It is organized according to the same structural principles as my own lectures and I find it extremely easy to fit into my style. The presentation is very clear and stimulating for students. I have found the Instructor's Manual as useful in preparing lectures and exams as the over-all text is for students. -Andrew Barclay, Michigan State University, reviewer.