Managing Suicidal Emergencies: Recommendations for the Practitioner

This article conceptualizes what a “behavioral emergency” is, gives recommendations for containing the emergency client’s emotional turmoil, & sets forth an evidence-based approach, using diagnosis-specific risk factors, for improving the clinician’s ability to estimate suicide risk. Recommendations are also given for appropriate responses to the patient or client on the basis of the level of estimated risk. Having such an algorithm or plan for dealing with the suicidal client is essential to good practice. (70 refs)