WE ARE INVITED!

to

SOCIALIZE & LEARN

with our psychiatric colleagues, 

the Tarrant County Chapter 

Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians

WHERE: Pappasito’s Cantina
            2704 West Freeway, Ft Worth 76102
Suicide risk assessment is defined as the practice of detecting patient-level conditions with potential to rapidly progress toward suicidal acts. With literally hundreds of thousands of risk assessment occurring every year, this single activity represents the most broadly-practiced, sustained suicide prevention effort in the country. Given its scope and universality, accurate and reliable risk assessment capabilities hold a central and irreplaceable position in the selected and indicated interventions mounted as part of a public health approach to suicide prevention. Aspirational Goal Three of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Research Prioritization Task Force’s prioritized research agenda is to “Find ways to assess who is at risk for attempting suicide in the immediate future.” Development of more reliable methods for detecting and measuring the likelihood of impending suicidal behaviors, therefore, represents one of the more substantial advancements possible in suicide prevention science today. While past “second-generation” risk models utilizing largely static risk factors failed to show predictive capabilities, the current “third-generation” dynamic risk prognostic models have shown initial promise. In addition, methodological improvements to these models include the advent of real-time, in vivo data collection processes, common data elements across studies and subsequent data sharing to build knowledge around key factors, and analytic methods designed to address rare event outcomes. Taken with the critical need for improved risk detection, these promising recent developments may well foreshadow advancement toward achievement of this Aspirational goal. This presentation review the state of the science in suicide risk assessment, both with reference to screening protocols such as those mandated by the Joint Commission and with reference to risk assessment procedures used to determine risk at the individual patient level. 

At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

--Name three currently-used suicide risk screening instruments and provide information on their reliability

--List the major objective of the “Zero Suicide” movement

--List three approaches to risk assessment and discuss the pros and cons of each