Today's psychiatrists practice in an environment that poses difficult challenges. Both treatment time and duration
are limited by insurance requirements; many facilities are understaffed; split treatment arrangements are typical;
and high-risk, acutely suicidal patients are admitted to inpatient units for short lengths of stay. In addition,
law now plays a pervasive role in the practice of psychiatry. The doctor-patient relationship is no longer defined
solely by the involved parties. Clinicians must juggle these requirements and limitations while providing the very
best care to their patients, especially those at high risk.Preventing Patient Suicide: Clinical Assessment and
Managementprovides the wisdom of Dr. Robert I. Simon's vast clinical experience, combined with the latest insights
from the evidence-based psychiatric literature, to offer a cutting-edge survey of suicide prevention and management
techniques. The author: --Addresses sudden improvement in high-risk suicidal patients, a phenomenon both common
and perilous, with techniques for determining whether the improvement is real or feigned.--Explores in depth the
misuse of suicide risk assessment forms, with emphasis on their inherent limitations.--Examines the many entrenched
myths and traditions about suicide, exposing them to the critical light of evidence-based medicine, including the
concept of "imminent suicide risk" and the myth of "passive suicide ideation".--Discusses the
continuum of chronic and acute high-risk suicidal patients, the fluidity with which one can become the other, and
the difficulty in assessing these patients.--Explores how the law and psychiatry interact in frequently occurring
clinical situations, and the importance of therapeutic risk management.In addition, the book contains a variety
of features that illuminate the subject and enhance the reader's understanding, including: --Inclusion of illustrative
case studies, combined with commentary on commonly occurring but comp