Customer Reviews

Treatment of Suicidal Patients in Managed Care

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As chief of a busy psychiatric service in a managed care company, I found a great deal of solace, support and practical information in Dr Ellison's timely and useful collection of essays. Neither Dr Ellison nor any of his contributors take the easy way out of 'bashing' managed care organizations. Rather, they seem to understand the socioeconomic rationale for these organizations, take them as a given and objectively delineate their strengths and weaknesses. They then set about the really important task of showing the way for the practicing clinician to cope with them. The book is empowering on many levels offering strategies for providing the most effective care, warnings about what to anticipate in planning treatment for a patient covered under managed care, and techniques for objecting effectively when real clinical concerns cannot be satisfactorily dealt with in an existing system of care. Never did I detect a victimized stance with regard to clinician or patient.
The book offers legal perspectives, special sections on the care of the elderly and the adolescent suicidal patient, and helpful background about the evolution of managed care systems. One of the best chapters in the book, written by Dr Steve Stelovich, discusses the aftermath of suicide in terms of risk prevention, support of providers, and compassionate treatment of the survivors.
Dr Ellison has done a great service to clinicians in organizing this helpful compendium of expertise about a subject that needs constant revisiting. I am grateful for his doing so and will find many applications for his book in the life of my clinic.