Читать книгу Suicide Assessment and Treatment Planning - John Sommers-Flanagan - Страница 52

Feeling responsible for life-and-death situations is overwhelming (Cramer et al., 2013). As in the opening case of Kevin, when clients make suicide attempts or die by suicide, practitioners often experience an avalanche of guilt, preoccupation with possible mistakes, and feelings of incompetence. Even though such feelings are natural, they are still extremely difficult. As noted in Chapter 1, self-care is always important for mental health and school professionals, but when suicide is the issue, self-care is especially critical (Binkley & Leibert, 2015).

Debriefings of some sort are important whenever you conduct a suicide assessment. Debriefings may involve you taking the lead and reporting exactly how you handled a particular assessment or intervention. They can also include your supervisor (or classmates or colleagues) asking specific questions. Common debriefing questions include the following:

1 What clinical observations increased your concerns about suicide?

2 What clinical observations decreased your concerns about suicide?

3 What risk and protective factors did you notice through observation? What risk and protective factors did you ask about?

4 How did you directly ask your client about suicide? What was your client’s response?

5 What was the quality of your therapeutic relationship or connection?

6 Did you trust that what your client told you was truthful? If so, what made you trust your client? If not, what made you reluctant to trust your client?

7 Did you gather information about the frequency, intensity, duration, and termination of your client’s suicidal ideation? What was your client’s response to these questions?

8 Did you ask about previous attempts? What was your client’s response?

9 Did you ask about suicide plans? What was your client’s response?

10 What were your client’s reasons for living and reasons for dying?

11 Did you initiate a safety planning intervention? If so, what was your client’s response?

12 What was your impression regarding your client’s willingness to engage in ongoing counseling?