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.

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This book has been replaced by Managing Suicidal Risk, Third Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-5269-6.

The quality of the therapeutic alliance is a well-established factor for successful therapy. With suicidal patients, a strong therapeutic alliance can quite literally save a person's life. In this book, an elite group of clinicians and researchers explore what has become known as the Aeschi approach to clinical suicide prevention. According to this view, mental health professionals must recognize a fundamental conflict at the heart of good clinical practice: While they are experts in the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders, when it comes to the patient's suicidal story, the patient is the expert. Successful interventions with suicidal patients must therefore be empathic and honor the very personal perspective of the patient. This exceptional volume addresses a wide range of issues, from the principles and methods of establishing a working alliance to patient-oriented therapies for suicidality. Moreover, the text discusses practical clinical matters related to specific treatments across theoretical orientations and modalities. Above all, this book provides essential guidance for any clinician seeking a sensible and compelling approach to working effectively with suicidal patients. Konrad Michel, MD, MRCPsych, is a senior psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the outpatient department of the University Psychiatric it Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, and is also in private clinical practice. Dr. Michel has been a collaborator on the World Health OrganizationùEuropean Multicenter Study on Suicidal Behavior. He has conducted several clinical research projects focusing on the role of general practitioners in suicide prevention and on various aspects of the patientûclinician clinical relationship. Together with Ladislav Valach, PhD, Dr. Michel has developed a model of understanding suicidal behavior based on the theory of goal-directed action and narrative interviewing. He is also the initiator of the Aeschi Working Group, a group of clinicians and researchers who are dedicated to improving clinical suicide prevention by developing and promoting patient-oriented models of understanding suicidal behavior. David A. Jobes, PhD, ABPP, is a professor of psychology and associate director of clinical training at The Catholic University of America. His research and writing have led to numerous publications in suicidology, with a particular focus on clinical suicidology. Dr. Jobes is a past president of the American Association of Suicidology and is the recipient of that organization's 1995 Edwin Shneidman Award in recognition of early career contribution to suicide research. He has served as a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Jobes is a board-certified clinical psychologist (American Board of Professional Psychology) who maintains a private clinical and forensic practice at the Washington Psychological Center, Washington, DC.

Every year, about 30,000 people die by suicide in the U.S., and some 650,000 receive emergency treatment after a suicide attempt. Often, those most at risk are the least able to access professional help. Reducing Suicide provides a blueprint for addressing this tragic and costly problem: how we can build an appropriate infrastructure, conduct needed research, and improve our ability to recognize suicide risk and effectively intervene. Rich in data, the book also strikes an intensely personal chord, featuring compelling quotes about people's experience with suicide. The book explores the factors that raise a person's risk of suicide: psychological and biological factors including substance abuse, the link between childhood trauma and later suicide, and the impact of family life, economic status, religion, and other social and cultural conditions. The authors review the effectiveness of existing interventions, including mental health practitioners' ability to assess suicide risk among patients. They present lessons learned from the Air Force suicide prevention program and other prevention initiatives. And they identify barriers to effective research and treatment. This new volume will be of special interest to policy makers, administrators, researchers, practitioners, and journalists working in the field of mental health.

With recent studies using genetic, epigenetic, and other molecular and neurochemical approaches, a new era has begun in understanding pathophysiology of suicide. Emerging evidence suggests that neurobiological factors are not only critical in providing potential risk factors but also provide a promising approach to develop more effective treatment and prevention strategies. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide discusses the most recent findings in suicide neurobiology. Psychological, psychosocial, and cultural factors are important in determining the risk factors for suicide; however, they offer weak prediction and can be of little clinical use. Interestingly, cognitive characteristics are different among depressed suicidal and depressed nonsuicidal subjects, and could be involved in the development of suicidal behavior. The characterization of the neurobiological basis of suicide is in delineating the risk factors associated with suicide. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide focuses on how and why these neurobiological factors are crucial in the pathogenic mechanisms of suicidal behavior and how these findings can be transformed into potential therapeutic applications.

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.