Introduction Suicides in prisons and jails are several times higher than the general population (Thigpen, Beauclair, Hutchinson & Zandi, 2010) for a variety of reasons: incarceration is stressful, mental health issues can be exacerbated in the corrections environment, and overcrowding and understaffing mean that suicidality can be hard to detect. This led to the development…
Category: Suicide Prevention / Crisis Intervention
Suicide prevention, risk assessment and intervention
Is the SAD PERSONS Scale dangerous?
The SAD PERSONS scale was first developed in 1983 by Patterson, Dohn, Patterson & Patterson to teach medical students clinical suicide risk assessment skills. In that first publication, students taught the tool – which features 10 risk factors for suicide that are added up, “demonstrated a significantly greater ability to accurately evaluate and make recommendations…
Means Restriction in Suicide Prevention
What is Means Restrictions? Means restriction is a technique for preventing suicide that involves restricting or preventing access to the tools used to attempt suicide. This can be things like pills (for overdosing), firearms (for shooting), or railways (for jumping.) Some suicide methods have much higher lethality or chance of causing death than others. For…
Starting a Crisis Line or Hotline
Introduction Update: May 22, 2017 Please see Ultimate Guide to Starting a Crisis Line for a much more comprehensive treatment of this same topic! Do you want to start your own suicide hotline, crisis line or helpline? This is an extremely ambitious and admirable goal and I admire you for thinking about your community! Thousands of suicide…
Suicide Prevention in the US Military
Suicide prevention is a significant issue in the US military, with the loss of current service members and veterans a significant public and social health cost. There have been a variety of theories on the causes of the increase in military suicides, which has been termed an “epidemic.” (Pilkington, 2013) Model of Suicidal Behaviour A…