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Resources for Clinician

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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. 

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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.

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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