Proven Methods for Reducing Suicide Risk
Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT)
BCBT is an outpatient psychotherapy treatment that has been shown to rapidly reduce suicidal ideation and risk of suicide attempts. In contrast to traditional mental health treatment models that aim to reduce suicide risk by treating mental health disorders, BCBT adopts a transdiagnostic approach that directly targets two underlying causes of suicide risk: emotion dysregulation and cognitive flexibility. This targeted approach makes BCBT the most effective mental health treatment for reducing suicide risk.
Research has shown that BCBT:
- Reduces suicide attempts by more than 60% as compared to other mental health treatments
- Rapidly reduces suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, and other symptoms of mental health disorders
- Reduces inpatient psychiatric hospitalization
- Reduces healthcare and medical costs
- Can be flexibly used in inpatient, IOP/PHP, outpatient, and telehealth settings
- Builds purpose and meaning in life
Crisis Response Planning (CRP)
CRP is a brief procedure drawn from BCBT that has been shown to rapidly reduce suicidal ideation and risk of suicide attempts when used as a stand-alone intervention. Originally developed for use with high-risk patients receiving outpatient psychotherapy, CRP has since been adapted for use in a wide range of healthcare settings including emergency departments, primary care, psychiatric inpatient units, and general medical settings. CRP has also been implemented for use by non-healthcare professionals who come into contact with people experiencing suicidal crises outside the healthcare system like schools, correctional institutions, criminal justice settings, and other community settings.
Research has shown that CRP:
- Reduces suicide attempts by 50% or more as compared to traditional crisis management procedures like safety planning
- Rapidly reduces suicidal ideation, depression, and emotional distress
- Builds optimism and hope
- Preferred by suicidal patients over traditional safety planning methods
- Can be easily integrated into a wide range of mental health treatment modalities
- Can be used effectively by peer mentors and non-healthcare professionals in school, work, and community settings
Lethal Means Counseling (LMC)
LMC is a collaborative approach designed to increase a person's motivation and willingness to limit or reduce their access to potentially lethal methods of suicide. Published research shows that people who receive LMC are much more likely to take steps to enhance environmental safety (e.g., getting rid of excess and expired medications, using firearm locking devices and safes, creating barriers that slow down access to suicide attempt methods).
Research has shown that LMC:
- Encourages parents of suicidal youths to lock up medications and alcohol and securely store firearms
- Increases the use of firearm locking devices, safes, and other secure storage methods
- Is positively received by firearm owners
- Can be learned and used effectively by peer mentors, family members, and other non-healthcare professionals to encourage home safety and help loved ones survive crisis moments
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Rethinking Suicide: Why Prevention Fails, and How We Can Do Better
Rethinking Suicide is a critical examination of what we think we know about suicide, with particular focus on the assumed role of mental illness. Craig J. Bryan, a leading expert on suicide prevention, argues that most prevention efforts have failed because they disproportionately emphasize mental health-focused solutions such as access to treatment and crisis services. Instead of classifying suicide as a mental health issue, careful analysis of research findings suggest it should instead be seen as a highly complex problem with many risk factors - from personal decision-making styles, to the availability of lethal means, to financial uncertainty. As such suicide rates will not be curtailed by conventional solution-oriented thinking; rather, we need process-based thinking that may, in some cases, defy or contradict many of our long-held assumptions about suicide. Rethinking Suicide interweaves the author's firsthand experiences with explanations of scientific findings to reveal the limitations of widely-used practices and to introduce new perspectives that may trigger a paradigm shift in how we understand and prevent suicide.