Resources for Clinician
Suicide Risk Screeners and Assessments
Below are suicide screening and assessment tools that are free, do not require formal training or degrees/certifications, and take seconds to minutes to deliver. Click on the links to read more about the settings, age ranges, free trainings, and free versions of these screening tools and assessments.
- Patient Safety Screener: A 3 item screener for all patients seen in acute care settings, plus 6 items to determine risk strata for individual who endorse suicide risk on the screener, for use in acute care settings.
- Patient Health Questionnaire — 9 A depression screening tool with an item assessing suicide risk, which can reliably screen for suicide in primary care settings
- Ask Suicide Questions Screening and Assessment Toolkit A set of four brief screening questions that takes 20 seconds to administer - followed by a more thorough assessment for those who screen positive. Adapted for youth and adults, and for inpatient, emergency department, outpatient primary care, and specialty clinics including medical/surgical settings, schools, and justice-related settings.
- Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale Supported by the National Institute on Mental Health, uses 6 simple, plain-language questions that anyone can ask to assess suicidal ideation and behaviors. The answers determine severity and immediacy of risk for suicide, and inform recommendations for services and supports.
- Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire — Revised A brief 4 item self-report measure with clinical cutoffs for adults in inpatient and general (e.g., primary care) settings.
Suicide Risk Self-Report Measures
The below measures can be administered to patients repeatedly over time, to assess change or improvement in response to intervention, or to understand if there has been a clinically significant worsening and potential need for changes in treatment. These assessments require formal training or certification and may cost money to purchase.
Compassionate Suicide Care Interventions and Best Practices
Safety Planning
- Stanley-Brown Safety Plan: A brief intervention to help those experiencing self-harm and suicidal thoughts with a concrete way to reduce risk and increase safety. See this quick guide for clinicians as a helpful reminder of the 6 steps of safety planning.
- Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicide: An interactive assessment process where the patient is actively involved in the development of their own safety plan. The patient is “co-author” of their own safety plan.
- CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means to Prevent Suicide involves making the environment safer during suicidal crises by removing access to suicide methods. This can be temporary and in order to create more time and space between when a person is feeling suicidal and when they might act on suicidal thoughts.
- CALM for Pediatric Providers: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means to Prevent Youth Suicide
- SAFE-T: The five-step plan involves identifying risk factors and protective factors, conducting a suicide inquiry, determining risk level and interventions, and documenting a treatment plan. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration supported the development of the Suicide Safe mobile app which can pair with SAFE-T. Available in app stores here.
Suicide Prevention within Healthcare Settings
- Toolkit for Suicide Prevention in Primary Care Settings: tools, information, and resources to implement suicide prevention practices and overcome barriers to treating suicidal thoughts and behaviors in the primary care setting. This toolkit, created by the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education Mental Health Program (WICHE MHP) and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC). Includes assessment guidelines, safety plans, billing tips, and sample protocols.
- Beck Institute — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicide Prevention Training for Outpatient Settings: Interactive online training in cognitive behavioral therapy for suicide prevention, an evidence based intervention for adults with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors. Includes training in suicide risk assessment, the therapeutic relationship, case conceptualize and treatment planning, and safety planning.
- Caring for Adults with Suicide Risk: A Consensus Guide for Emergency Departments: Guide to assist Emergency Department health care professionals with decisions about the care and discharge of patients with suicide risk, to improve outcomes after discharge.
- Emergency Department Best Practices: Care Transitions for Individuals with Suicide Risk. Best practices to address the care gap between emergency departments and outpatient care. ED Best Practices provides recommendations to help reduce repeat emergency department visits, ensure follow-up care, and connect the patient with resources and support.
- Inpatient Suicide Safety Precaution Policy: example policy on suicide precautions, behavior monitoring and safety rounding in an inpatient psychiatric unit
- Caring for Adults with Suicide Risk in Substance Use Treatment Settings: Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration TIP 50 offers guidelines for working with suicidal adults living with substance use disorders. It covers risk factors and warning signs for suicide, core competencies, and clinical vignettes.
- Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) training teaches best practices in caring, confident suicide care. AMSR is based on the latest research and is designed to support safer suicide care practices, such as Zero Suicide. The AMSR research-informed risk formulation model offers key strategies to navigate challenging conversations and systemic barriers. AMSR teaches a prevention-oriented risk formulation focused on planning not predicting.
- Zero Suicide Toolkit — For Healthcare Systems
- Zero Suicide Academy — For Health and Behavioral Health Organizations
- Parents to Parents: After Your Child’s Suicide Attempt, is a video which describes what parents can expect in the days and weeks following a child’s suicide-related crisis; provides information on how to access effective treatment; offers insights on how parents can best support their child and family; shares information on evidence-based practices; and validates feelings that often arise. It includes perspectives of parents of children who made a suicide attempt and suicide research experts, and was created by the Zero Suicide Institute at the Education Development Center and Parents to Parents.
- CAMS-care Events | Suicidology Lectures, Forums & Educational Talks: Free webinars on a range of suicide prevention topics and new research
- The Suicide Prevention Resource Center Best Practices Registry includes listings of programs for suicide prevention based and can be searched based on population, setting, and approach
- For Suicide Prevention Trainings in Massachusetts, Department of Mental Health Suicide Prevention Training Calendar
