Guidelines for Suicide Assessment: A Protocol for Addressing Clinical and Legal Concerns

The topic of suicide assessment is of interest to correctional health care practitioners because they often feel very susceptible to criticism in the event of a completed suicide. In the absence of defined academic or professional standards, practitioners rightfully feel vulnerable to the potential consequences of a legally challenged assessment, particularly in our increasingly litigious society. To make matters worse, practitioners often do not understand the actual criteria that will be used to judge their performance in court. Consequently, they often do not conduct assessments and write reports that can withstand courtroom challenges by well-prepared experts. This paper acquaints readers with an assessment protocol that offers assessment guidelines that can be used by practitioners in a variety of clinical settings. It also provides several recommendations that will help clinicians strengthen the quality of their suicide risk assessments as well as offer a higher degree of protection from litigation.