Introduction and Rationale (IN: Suicide: Guidelines for Assessment, Management, and Treatment, edited by B Bongar)

This chapter is a brief introduction to the book, “Suicide: Guidelines for Assessment, Management & Treatment”. This book was created to address the current gaps in training efforts. The message that the management of suicidal patients may be a higher risk professional endeavour than most other clinical situations is explicitly conveyed. The fundamentals of assessing, managing & treating suicidal patients are presented, & sensible & useful guidelines for clinical practice are proposed.