The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention (HARVARD MEDICAL SCH GDE TO SUICIDE ASSESSMENT/ INTERVENTION) [Hardcover]

Douglas G. Jacobs (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0787943037 | ISBN-13: 978-0787943035 | Edition: 1

This vital resource--edited by Harvard Medical School's Douglas Jacobs, a nationally recognized expert on suicide and depression--is the definitive guide for helping mental health professionals determine the risk for suicide and appropriate interventions for suicidal or at-risk patients. Created primarily for mental health clinicians (with several chapters directed toward primary care physicians), the book is a hands-on guide for those who are often the first line of defense for assessing if a patient or client is suicidal.

Comprehensive in scope, the book offers a wealth of information about such useful topics as inpatient and outpatient issues, psychopharmacology, and advice about working with special populations. Most importantly, the book's contributors detail effective techniques for intervention and offer a model of suicide assessment that focuses on predisposing conditions, potentiating conditions, and specific suicide inquiries. As a special feature, the book also includes a helpful section on contracts--agreements made with the patient not to harm themselves--and useful facts about the subsequent liability issues. In addition, there is a compelling analysis of the controversial issues surrounding assisted suicide as well as an honest personal account of suicidality from a professional who has experienced it for herself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Harvard Guide puts the best and the brightest of consulting suicidologists on the practicing clinician's bookshelf, . . . . must-read." (Lanny Berman, executive director, American Association of Suicidology)

"[This book] presents the most up-to-date material and combines this framework with practical suggestions for the clinician. This is sure to become a classic." (Alan F. Schatzberg, Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor and chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine)

"The threat of suicide is riveting; its reality is devastating; it is our life-or-death clinical challenge. This volume is the singularly comprehensive, authoritative, definitive, and useful text on suicide. We are now strengthened for our work." (Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School)

"For the clinician needing help with a suicidal patient?this is your book. For the student or researcher seeking the state of the art on suicide?this is your book." (Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, Titus Harris Distinguished Professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston)

From the Inside Flap

More than 30,000 deaths in the United States each year?more than 80 per day?are a result of suicide. Suicide is the primary cause of early death among psychiatric patients and an issue in one quarter of all psychiatric malpractice lawsuits.The fundamental question is, How can clinicians identify patients who may be at risk for suicide and take the necessary steps to reduce that risk?This essential resource?edited by Douglas G. Jacobs, Harvard Medical School's nationally recognized expert on suicide and depression?is a compendium of the most current research and authoritative thought on the topic of suicide. Each of the volume's forty-eight contributors is an expert on an aspect of suicide assessment and intervention. The breadth of knowledge offered in this handbook speaks to the fact that suicide is a complex, multidimensional clinical problem that requires a wide range of methods for effective assessment and treatment.This hands-on guide is written for those who have the common yet complex task of assessing suicidality in a patient or client?psychiatrists, primary care physicians, school counselors, psychologists, psychotherapists, and other mental health professionals. The book helps professionals determine the risk level for suicidal or at-risk patients and recommends a suicide assessment protocol that can be effectively incorporated into clinical practice. The authors also provide guidelines for intervening when a person is at risk for harming himself or herself.Comprehensive in scope, the book offers a wealth of information and practical advice on specific topics, including working with special at-risk populations such as adolescents, the physically ill, and those with major mental illness, alcoholism, or borderline personality disorder. The book also addresses the somatic treatment of the suicidal patient, including important new findings about the possible antisuicidal effect of lithium. In addition, the guide contains important cautions rega

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 736 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787943037
• ISBN-13: 978-0787943035
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must" in all physicians library., April 28, 2000

By 

Proença, Mário R.P. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention (HARVARD MEDICAL SCH GDE TO SUICIDE ASSESSMENT/ INTERVENTION) (Hardcover)

This book helps professionals determine the risk level for suicidal or at-risk patients and recommends a suicide assessment protocal that can be effectively incorporated into clinical practice. The authors also provide guidelines for intervening when a person is at risk for harming himself or herself. If you're researching on suicide this is the right book to start reading. A "must" in all physicians library.

5.0 out of 5 stars a must-have for every clinician's bookshelf, February 22, 2010

By 

N. Ferguson "Two, Daisy, Hannah, and Kitten" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention (HARVARD MEDICAL SCH GDE TO SUICIDE ASSESSMENT/ INTERVENTION) (Hardcover)

This volume seeks to answer the essential question, "How can clinicians identify patients who may be at risk for suicide and take the necessary steps to reduce that risk?" It provides a comprehensive review of current thinking and evidence-based practice in the field of suicidology, with particular emphasis upon medical intervention.

Great depth and breadth of information. For example, Part One (Assessment) covers the following topics: overview of suicide, recommended protocol, epidemiology, community approach, psychodynamic understanding of suicide, lethality assessment, neurobiology of suicidal behavior, profiles of completed suicides, murder-suicide, self-mutiliation, critical points in the assessment and management of suicide risk, etc. !) Part Two covers intervention and related diagnoses (trauma, bipolar do, borderline pdo, schizophrenia, lifetime suicide risk and affective disorders, etc.). Part Three covers special issues including children and adolescents, the elderly, contracting, suicide in medical settings, assessment in primary care settings, liability issues, and euthanasia/assisted suicide.

An important resource for all mental health professionals.

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fast service/ good book, October 6, 2005

By 

SCOUT (WOBURN, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention (HARVARD MEDICAL SCH GDE TO SUICIDE ASSESSMENT/ INTERVENTION) (Hardcover)

I WAS HAPPY THAT IT WAS SHIPPED SUPERFAST TO ME. THE BOOK WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION AND AM HAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE. I WOULD DO SERVICE WITH THIS SELLER AGAIN.