A practical, evidence-based approach for means-restricting counseling with suicidal patients.

~Assessing a patient’s access to potentially lethal means for suicide and taking steps to restrict access to means are common expectations for reasonable outpatient management of suicidal patients. The present article reviews the conceptual basis and empirical evidence for means restriction, discusses common barriers to means-restriction counselling and provides practical procedures and tools for accomplishing means-restriction counselling in routine clinical practice.