The alternative approach to clinical practice, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, was developed by health practitioners and suicide prevention experts, together with a service user. Therefore prevention of suicide is one key task of mental health practitioners, but traditionally this has been dominated by attempts to predict suicide risk. Steve Gilbert, OBE, another author of the article, said: ‘As a suicide attempt survivor of multiple episodes, I know all too well the heart-breaking agony of being told you are at ‘low risk of suicide’ based on the risk prediction methodology. They also point out that preoccupation with risk prediction may undermine efforts to help patients with their problems, which has been highlighted by both family members and patients themselves. The full paper, ‘Assessment of suicide risk in mental health practice: Shifting from prediction to therapeutic assessment, formulation and risk management’, can be read in The Lancet Psychiatry.
