Working with Suicidal Individuals provides a comprehensive guide to understanding suicide, the assessment of risk, and the treatment and management of suicidal individuals. It covers the theory behind suicidal behaviour, using Transactional Analysis to explore the personality types of suicidal individuals and to understand their motivations.

Over a million people commit suicide worldwide every year. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that looks at the person at risk, the family and personal relationships they have and the communities in which they are embedded, this book will help anyone working with suicidal individuals to prevent this major cause of death. Backed up by research and clinical expertise the book clarifies the facts about suicide and debunks the many unfounded myths surrounding the subject. It covers the classifications and manifestations of suicide, as well as the major risk factors, at-risk groups and warning signs. Advice on effective communication and a repertoire of strategies for distress management are offered, not only for supporting at-risk individuals and those who have survived a suicide attempt, but also families coping with bereavement. A final chapter explores the impact of the internet and the digital age on both the propagation and prevention of suicide. This book will be essential reading for anybody working with people at risk of suicide, including clinicians, therapists, psychologists, social and healthcare workers and volunteers working in suicide prevention.

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.

Suicidality does not fit into the traditional medical illness model. Working with suicidal clients requires unique therapeutic approaches and is frequently referred to as one of the most demanding aspects of therapeutic work. Providing effective treatment and care for help-seeking suicidal individuals is of crucial importance. However, it cannot be automatically assumed that all mental health professionals feel competent to work with clients who are suicidal. Intriguingly, specific training in suicidality is frequently overlooked by psychological and medical study programs, even though such training has the potential to improve suicide intervention skills. Mental health professionals encounter different difficulties and challenges when faced with clients that experience suicidal ideation and/or have engaged in suicidal behaviour before or during treatment. We believe that it is essential to study professionals' experiences both from the point of view of providing high-quality care for the clients, as well as from the point of view of professionals' own well-being and mental health. With the aim to gain an overview and at the same time and in-depth understanding of their experiences, we conducted a study with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants of the quantitative part of the study were 106 professionals (19 men and 87 women) with an educational background in psychology, medicine or other fields, who are working in the field of mental health. They reported having at least one experience of treatment of a suicidal client. The collection of data with the questionnaires took place between October 2017 and January 2019. The questionnaires inquired about participants' socio-demographic and professional characteristics, difficulties experienced in working with suicidal clients, attitudes toward suicide prevention, and coping strategies (constructive and avoidant) used under challenging situations in therapeutic or counselling work. The analysis of quantitative data was carried out with the SPSS program. Eleven psychotherapists (four men and seven women) participated in the qualitative part of the study. Semi-structured individual interviews that lasted approximately one hour were conducted between January and November 2018. The interviews focused primarily on topics of therapeutic alliance, therapists' experiences of suicidality peak in the clients, therapists' suicidality-related attitudes, knowledge and understanding, therapists' emotions, difficulties experienced in practice with suicidal clients and resources, and crisis management. The qualitative data was analysed by the principles of grounded theory with the use of ATLAS.ti program. On average, participants are relatively confident in their competence for working with suicidal clients. On the other hand, they also experience a certain level of difficulties with regards to working with suicidal clients. Importantly, participants that received a suicidality-related training feel more competent than those who did not receive such training. Higher self-assessed competence is, in turn, related to a lower frequency of experiencing different types of difficulties in practice with suicidal clients. While other factors, related to experiencing difficulties (e.g. attitudes), were also identified, confidence in own competence seems to be a strong predictor of most types of difficulties. Analysis of qualitative data resulted in identification of nine themes and 32 subthemes. The themes are grounded on 919 quotations, coded with 261 codes and 18 smart codes. On the basis of the findings, we developed a model of dynamic balance in therapists' experiences and views on working with suicidal clients. The model includes six core themes, each of them representing an aspect of therapists' experience and views where a dynamic balance is needed between two different poles. The core themes are: (i) understanding of suicidality: the general vs. specific; (ii) the role of alliance: protective factor vs. no guarantees; (iii) attitudes: acceptant vs. life oriented; (iv) emotional response: worry vs. trust; (v) responsibility: therapist's professionality vs. client's autonomy; and (vi) focus: suicidality vs. individual as a person. The model also takes into account other variables that may be relevant to the process and outcomes of the therapy: contextual factors (variables related to system regulations and therapeutic setting) and variables, related to the therapist in a general sense and the client (including the client's family). Finally, the model considers the outcomes of the process for the therapist and the client. The findings have the potential to be useful for mental health professionals and psychotherapists in understanding different aspects of their experience and difficulties that they may encounter when working with suicidal clients. We believe that adequate suicidality-related training should be provided to professionals who are working with suicidal clients. Further on, the findings (especially the model) may also aid the therapists in identifying aspects of their experience that should be considered and worked on, e.g. in different forms of professional support.

Current and comprehensive information concerning the assessment and treatment of suicidal persons and the prevention of suicidal behavior The eighth leading cause of death in the United States and the second leading cause among U.S. teens, suicide is unique in being self-inflicted and is, as such, often preventable. By assessing the risk of suicide accurately, providing effective treatment according to this risk, and implementing strategies against suicidal urges, mental health professionals can successfully guide their clients away from this senseless taking of life. Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Suicidal Behavior provides the most current and comprehensive source of information, guidelines, and case studies for working with clients at risk of suicide. It offers clinicians, counselors, and other mental health professionals a practical toolbox on three main areas of interest: Screening and Assessment covers empirically based assessment techniques and how they can define dimensions of vulnerability and measure the risk of self-destructive behavior. Authors discuss research on the use of each screening instrument, guidelines and suggestions for using the instrument in practice, and a case study illustrating its application. Intervention and Treatment compares several different approaches for structuring psychotherapy with suicidal clients. Each author covers a psychotherapy system, its application to suicidal clients, and a case study of its real-world use. Suicide and Violence explores the relationship between suicidal individuals and violence, covering suicide in specific contexts such as school violence, police confrontations, and terrorist violence. This section also includes a discussion of the increased risk of suicide in our more insecure and violent world, as well as how topromote coping styles for these new anxieties. While addressed mainly to psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals for use in serving their clients, as well as students of psychology, Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Suicidal Behavior is also an accessible and valuable resource for educators, school counselors, and others in related fields.

Working in the Dark focuses on the authors’ understanding of an individual’s pre-suicide state of mind, based on their work with many suicidal individuals, with special attention to those who attempted suicide while in treatment. The book explores how to listen to a suicidal individual’s history, the nature of their primary relationships and their conscious and unconscious communications. Campbell and Hale address the searing emotional impact on relatives, friends and those involved with a person who tries to kill themself, by offering advice on the management of a suicide attempt and how to follow up in the aftermath. Establishing key concepts such as suicide fantasy and pre-suicidal states in adolescents, the book illustrates the pre-suicide state of mind through clinical vignettes, case studies, reflections from those in recovery and discussions with professionals. Working in the Dark will be of interest to social workers, probation officers, nurses, psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and doctors who work with those who have attempted suicide or are about to do so.

Treatment of suicidal people takes three forms: prevention - strategies to avert conditions leading to suicide; intervention - treatment and care during the crisis; and postvention - response after the event has occurred. Unlike other current literature, here the focus is on the state of the art of intervention. This type of examination is essential, because suicidal people themselves are in need of such treatments - crisis intervention, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and hospitalization. Written by professionals in the field, the Treatment of Suicidal People allows readers to participate in a learning experience. First is a case presentation of an individual - Arthur Inman - and his long road toward suicide, as chronicled in his personal diary. The seond section puts forth guidelines for the evaluation of suicide risk and crisis intervention. A focus on more sustained efforts in psychotherapy is next, a theme which is continued in the fourth part by addressing psychiatric issues that are essential for treatment of highly disturbed and lethal patients. The following section examines a number of clinical and legal issues that transcend any one population of suicidal people, and any particular treatment approach or context. And lastly, the volume returns to Arthur Inman, with case consultations providing alternative perspectives and recommendations on his treatment. Suicide and related forms of self-injurious behaviour can be circumvented, if the involved professionals are sufficiently trained in assessment and prevention.

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.

A useful and much-needed resource, this new book encapsulates the suicide literature into readable chunks, offering both practical skills and research based information. The book provides a comprehensive approach to many essential topics related to suicide and yet maintains a practical readability that busy clinicians will appreciate. Well organized chapters explain the relationship of suicide to specific topics, including a thorough discussion of at-risk clients and multiple aspects of working with suicidal clients (history, assessment, crises management, special populations, prevention, and postvention). Through use of this material, helping professionals will gain insights, practical skills, and therapeutic confidence into their work with the suicidal individual. Readers will appreciate the practical tips, lists, resources, and case studies available throughout. Features Include: Use of case examples and studies throughout. A full chapter on assessment provides solid practical information on a skill not often taught to pre-service helpers. Clinicians can find and use Internet and published resources throughout.

New edition of an acclaimed manual which uses the solution focused approach to take an empathetic and validating approach to working with individuals considering suicide. Offers invaluable guidance for suicide prevention by showing “what works” in treating those struggling with suicidal thoughts Provides straightforward ways to deal frankly with the subject of suicide, along with a range of tools and techniques that are helpful to clients Includes actual dialogue between practitioners and clients to allow readers to gain a better understanding of how to work with suicidal clients Compares and contrasts a ground-breaking approach to suicide prevention with more traditional approaches to risk assessment and management Features numerous updates and revisions along with brand new sections dealing with the international landscape, blaming the suicided person, Dr Alys Cole-King’s ‘Connecting with People’, and telephone work with the suicidal, Human Givens Therapy, and zero suicide