| The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention Contributor(s): Jacobs, Douglas G. (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0787943037 ISBN-13: 9780787943035 Publisher: Jossey-Bass OUR PRICE: $113.53 Product Type: Hardcover Published: December 1998 Annotation: More than 30,000 deaths in the United States each yearmore than 80 per dayare a result of suicide. Suicide is the primary cause of early death among psychiatric patients and an issue in one quarter of all psychiatric malpractice lawsuits. The fundamental question is, How can clinicians identify patients who may be at risk for suicide and take the necessary steps to reduce that risk? This essential resourceedited by Douglas G. Jacobs, Harvard Medical Schools nationally recognized expert on suicide and depressionis a compendium of the most current research and authoritative thought on the topic of suicide. Each of the volumes forty-eight contributors is an expert on an aspect of suicide assessment and intervention. The breadth of knowledge offered in this handbook speaks to the fact that suicide is a complex, multidimensional clinical problem that requires a wide range of methods for effective assessment and treatment. This hands-on guide is written for those who have the common yet complex task of assessing suicidality in a patient or clientpsychiatrists, primary care physicians, school counselors, psychologists, psychotherapists, and other mental health professionals. The book helps professionals determine the risk level for suicidal or at-risk patients and recommends a suicide assessment protocol that can be effectively incorporated into clinical practice. The authors also provide guidelines for intervening when a person is at risk for harming himself or herself. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention is the definitive guide for assisting clinicians in their crucial and continual taskdetermining the risk for and intervening against suicide. A Handbook for Assessing and Treating the Suicidal Patient Is your patient suicidal? Knowing when a person is suicidal and intervening to reduce the risk of his or her death is one of the most stressful, difficult, yet vitally important tasks faced by counselors and health care providers everywhere. Written by the top experts in the field, this definitive guide is the first in a new series of books developed in cooperation with the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention is an essential reference that provides clinicians with information and strategies for appropriate responses to patients or clients who are at risk for suicide. "The Harvard Guide puts the best and the brightest of consulting suicidologists on the practicing clinicians bookshelf, offering an invaluable resource for understanding and treating the at-risk suicidalpatient. Our patients will benefit greatly from the insights and directives in the book. I urge caregivers to make this a must read."Lanny Berman, executive director, American Association of Suicidology "The threat of suicide is riveting; its reality is devastating; it is our life-or-death clinical challenge. This volume is the singularly comprehensive, authoritative, definitive, and useful text on suicide. We are now strengthened for our work."Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School "[This book] presents the most up-to-date material and combines this framework with practical suggestions for the clinician. This is sure to become a classic."Alan F. Schatzberg, Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor and chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine "For the clinician needing help with a suicidal patientthis is your book. For the student or researcher seeking the state of the art on suicidethis is your book."Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, Titus Harris Distinguished Professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Psychology | Suicide - Medical | Mental Health - Psychology | Psychotherapy - General |
| Dewey: 616.858 |
| LCCN: 98025332 |
| Physical Information: 2.17" H x 7.24" W x 9.43" (2.99 lbs) 736 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This vital resource--edited by Harvard Medical School's DouglasJacobs, a nationally recognized expert on suicide anddepression--is the definitive guide for helping mental healthprofessionals determine the risk for suicide and appropriateinterventions for suicidal or at-risk patients. Created primarilyfor mental health clinicians (with several chapters directed towardprimary care physicians), the book is a hands-on guide for thosewho are often the first line of defense for assessing if a patientor client is suicidal. Comprehensive in scope, the book offers a wealth of informationabout such useful topics as inpatient and outpatient issues, psychopharmacology, and advice about working with specialpopulations. Most importantly, the book's contributors detaileffective techniques for intervention and offer a model of suicideassessment that focuses on predisposing conditions, potentiatingconditions, and specific suicide inquiries. As a special feature, the book also includes a helpful section on contracts--agreementsmade with the patient not to harm themselves--and useful factsabout the subsequent liability issues. In addition, there is acompelling analysis of the controversial issues surroundingassisted suicide as well as an honest personal account ofsuicidality from a professional who has experienced it for herself. |