SelfhelpMagazine

by William K. Hahn, Ph.D. & Lawrence I. Marks

Data is mounting to support the wisdom of inquiring about a client's history of suicide attempts during an initial counseling interview. Researchers William K. Hahn, Ph.D., and Lawrence I. Marks of the University of Tennessee found that clients, in this case college students, are generally quite receptive to the idea.

The authors note that previous research has demonstrated that routinely inquiring about suicide risk factors, especially in a college student population, appears to be a prudent practice for mental health professionals.

For example, previous studies have found that 75 percent of individuals who commit suicide have had a previous attempt and that users of campus counseling services are five to six times more likely than nonusers to commit suicide.

This study examined the degree to which university counseling service clients would be receptive to being asked about their history of suicide attempts, regardless of their reasons for seeking counseling.

Two hundred and forty clients participating in on-going therapy at a university counseling center completed a questionnaire designed to measure satisfaction with the services they received but which also asked them:
(a) if they had ever attempted suicide,
(b) if yes, was this discussed during the intake or walk-in session and
(c) did they think it is a good idea for counselors to ask all clients about these experiences?

Clients overwhelmingly voted in favor of asking for history of previous suicide attempts during the first session of follege counseling. Fourteen percent of the male clients and 22 percent of the female clients reported having attempted suicide, but only half of them recalled discussing that with the intake counselor. But 78.1 percent of the men and 76 percent of the women said they thought it was a good idea for counselors to ask clients about suicide attempts. None of the men and only 7 percent of the women thought it was not a good idea. The remaining 20 percent were undecided.

These results help refute naive reluctance to inquire about suicide because of fear of prompting suicidal behaviors.

To the contrary, the researchers in this study concluded, "when suicide risk factors are not assessed at all, appropriate interventions cannot be implemented. Failure to identify clients with risk factors for suicide can have disastrous consequences."

Article:

Client Receptiveness to the Routine Assessment of Past Suicide Attempts by William K. Hahn, Ph.D. & Lawrence I. Marks, University of Tennessee, in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol. 27, No. 6.

This information received from the American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC.