Suicide: a Legal Perspective (IN: Lifelines: Clinical Perspectives on Suicide, ed. by E L Bassuk, S C Schoonover & A D Gill)

One major legal issue for mental health professionals & hospitals concerns the determination of the likelihood of suicide. The author notes the considerable variation in court opinions of what circumstances make a suicide reasonably foreseeable. From this observation, he briefly states the essential elements which hospital policy should incorporate with respect to standards of care for patients exhibiting suicidal behaviour. (12 refs.)