The most effective mental health treatment for reducing suicide risk.

BCBT is typically provided as an outpatient individual psychotherapy scheduled over 10-12 weekly sessions. BCBT can also be delivered daily in a "massed" format that is well-suited for intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, and residential treatment programs. Abbreviated versions of BCBT have also been developed for inpatient psychiatric settings with relatively short (72 hours) lengths of stay. BCBT can be safely delivered in-person or remotely via telehealth. 

Multiple published research studies show that patients who receive BCBT report faster and larger reductions in suicidal ideation and are over 60% less likely to attempt suicide than patients who receive other mental health treatments (Rudd et al., 2015; Sinyor et al., 2020). 

A recent meta-analysis conducted by Fox et al. (2020) examining the effectiveness of multiple different types of mental health treatments based on hundreds of published treatment studies show that some mental health treatments are more effective than others for reducing suicide risk and suggest BCBT is more effective than other mental health treatments. Results of that meta-analysis are summarized to the right. 

Negligence and malpractice liability in the case of a patient death by suicide are largely determined by foreseeability, which typically refers to the procedures used by the clinician to assess the likelihood and possibility of suicidal behavior prior to the act, and reasonable care, which typically refers to the procedures used by the clinician to reduce this risk (Berman, 2006). To address foreseeability and reasonable care, mental health clinicians are expected to:

• Screen all patients for suicide risk ;
• Conduct a reasonable assessment of a patient's suicide risk level; and
• Provide appropriate interventions and treatments to mitigate this risk.

BCBT includes procedures and clinical support tools that meet and exceed these expectations:

• Patient information sheets that augment typical informed consent procedures;
• Strategies for effectively screening for suicide risk and integrating  results into risk formulation and treatment planning;
• Suicide risk assessment documentation templates;
• Integration of crisis response planning (CRP);
• Collaborative approach to conducting lethal means counseling (LMC); and
• Suicide-focused interventions and skills training.