Assessment

17 AREAS FOR SUICIDE ASSESSMENT

By Alice Baland, MA, LPC, RD/LD

Client has a family history of suicide.
Client has a history of previous attempts.
Client has formulated a specific plan.
Client has experienced recent loss of a loved one through death, divorce, or separation.
Client’s family is destabilized as a result of loss, personal abuse, violence, and/or because the client has been sexually abused.
Client is preoccupied with the anniversary of a particularly traumatic loss.
Client is psychotic.
Client has a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse.
Client has had recent physical and/or psychological trauma.
Client has a history of unsuccessful medical treatment.
Client is living alone and is cut off from contact with others.
Client is depressed, is recovering from depression, or has recently been hospitalized for depression.
Client is giving away prized possessions or putting personal affairs in order.
Client displays radical shifts in characteristic behaviors or moods, such as apathy, withdrawal, isolation, irritability, panic, or anxiety and changed social, sleeping, eating, school, or work habits.
Client is experiencing a pervasive feeling of hopelessness/helplessness.
Client is preoccupied and troubled by earlier episodes of experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.
Client exhibits profound degree of one or more emotions – such as anger, aggression, loneliness, guilt, hostility, grief, or disappointment—that are uncharacteristic of the individual’s normal emotional behavior.

Should someone you know be experiencing suicidal thoughts, plans, intent, despair, hopelessness or depression, get professional help immediately. If no one is available, call 911 or take the person to a hospital and call their treatment team.