Suicide-Risk Assessment and Management

Executive Summary:

Suicide is a terrible phenomenon with thousands of people taking their own lives in the UK and worldwide, every year, and we don't respond to it especially well: around 50% of people who end their own lives have seen their doctors in the previous week and about 90% in the previous year. To intervene better, we need to be able to spot those who are at risk, to manage the risk (do our best to ensure it doesn't happen), and intervene to help people build a rewarding life long-term.

This 2-day course focuses on the first two of those three factors, and is based on APT's acclaimed DICES programme for risk assessment and management. It focuses purely on the risk of suicide, covering

1. Risk Assessment

2. Risk Management

3. How to verify and demonstrate you have assessed and managed risk

and does so in a client-focused way, designed to help the client from the very first moment of contact.

Equally, many professionals become anxious about seeing patients who are suicidal, so this course aims also to help us become relaxed and optimistic about seeing suicidal people, because we will know what to do: we will notice them, we will be able to manage their suicidality, we will be able to give them hope for the future.

To find out more or to contact APT click here.

Who should attend:

All professionals who sometimes see people who are at risk of suicide, whether in residential facilities, outpatient facilities or in the community.

Note: the age of the people you see is immaterial, it is a fallacy that it is 'mainly young men' who take their own lives. Suicide is one of the top causes of death in young men because other illnesses are less prevalent at that age. Suicide itself however continues through the years.

Equally on gender, although some people make the point that three times as many men than women end their own lives in the UK, it is still the case that 1,500 women do so every year, a substantial figure.

To find out more or to contact APT click here.

Course aims:

• To illustrate how there can be no better way to spend our professional time than to help people who are so distressed that they are thinking of ending their lives.
• To change the perception of suicide as something that appears worrisome to something that is a clear opportunity to make a great impact.
• To be able to 'spot' people who are at risk of suicide and to engage with them. And to spot people who are not at significant risk.
• To know how professionals can be 'set up' as a focus for hope, and how dangerous it can be if this hope is thwarted.
• To be able to manage suicide risk. That is, to keep the person safe while effective treatment is provided.
• To provide a simple non-intrusive measure of progress while at the same time monitoring risk.
• To be aware of 'false dawns' and how dangerous they can be.
• To be able to enjoy the rewards – and handle the stresses – of working with suicide.

To find out more or to contact APT click here.

The course covers:

• The nature of suicide: reckless suicide, 'out of the blue' suicide, 'I don't think he meant it' suicide, and others.
• The first session: why it is so important: the relationship and assessment.
• Risk Assessment 1, fixed factors: what are the fixed, immutable factors that are predictive of suicide and, if they are fixed, how can we utilise them?
• Risk Assessment 2, fluid factors: what are the fluid factors that are predictive of suicide and how do we capitalise on their fluidity?
• Case-study: is this person at risk of suicide? If so why? If not why not?
• Risk Management: How to keep the person safe while you give proper treatment to provide a long term solution. The weakness of a formal contract and the effectiveness of an informal contract.
• How to demonstrate that you are managing the risk, both in writing and in meetings.
• The yardstick – what makes for a service that is good, effective and ethical?
• Avoiding the potholes, 1: working with people who are just too lethargic to end their lives – until your intervention increases their energy levels.
• Avoiding the potholes, 2: the patient who is suddenly much more cheerful – because they've made up their mind to 'end their misery'.
• Working with suicide is exciting, fascinating, and immensely rewarding, yet it can also be stressful. How to manage that stress, especially in case of 'significant incidents'.

To find out more or to contact APT click here.

What this course will do for you:

• You will see that there can be no better way to spend your professional time than to help people who are so distressed that they are thinking of ending their lives. You will see a clear opportunity to make a great impact.
• You will be able to 'spot' people who are at risk of suicide and to engage with them. And to spot people who are not at significant risk.
• You will know how you may have been 'set up' as a focus for hope, and how dangerous it can be if this hope is thwarted.
• You will be able to manage suicide risk - to keep the person safe while you provide effective treatment.
• You will be able to spot 'false dawns' and know how to avoid the dangers they pose.
• You will be able to handle the stresses - and enjoy the rewards – of working with suicide.

To find out more or to contact APT click here.

What you receive as a result of attending the training:

You will be registered as having attended the course, thereby gaining APT's Level 1 accreditation, and receive a certificate to this effect. The accreditation gives you access to online resources associated with the course and access to the online exam if you wish to uprate your APT accreditation to Level 2.

Your registration lasts indefinitely, and your accreditation lasts for 3 years and is renewable by sitting an online refresher which also upgrades your accreditation to APT Level 2 if you are successful in the associated online exam.

Your accreditation is given value by the fact of over 100,000 people having attended APT training. .

To find out more or to contact APT click here.