Suicide Risk Assessment

Suicide risk assessments (SRA) are based on the symptoms, behaviors, and historical factors that are gathered during a mental health professional/psychiatric interview whereas suicide risk formulation (SRF) is the professional judgment which is based on interview (Silverman & Berman, 2014). In order for professional judgment to occur there needs to have been an assessment (Silverman & Berman, 2014). When dealing with screening and assessing suicide risk there needs to be a standard of care which is defined by Silverman and Berman (2014) as “duty to exercise that degree of skill and care ordinarily employed by a reasonable and prudent clinician in similar circumstances by members of the same profession” (p. 421). Two suicide risk tools are the