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Target Audience: Staff
What Suicidal Thoughts Are and What They Aren’t
This talk details contemporary research into the phenomenology of suicidal thinking is, not simply how thoughts of suicide are assessed. The talk discusses how commonly used screeners and risk assessment tools have fall short of assessing important aspects of suicidal thinking and what can be done to improve the relevance of these tools. For example, research indicates that adults are more likely to experiences images of their own suicide/death than have verbal thoughts of suicide. A brief description of “suicide flashforwards” is provided as well as tips on how these can be (and should be) assessed. In brief, the talk details how suicidal thoughts are dynamic, experienced pictorially and verbally, experienced consciously and non-consciously, employed volitionally and non-volitionally, and respond to treatment in idiographic ways while discussing how suicidal thoughts aren’t strong predictors of suicidal behavior, not contingent on symptoms of depression, and are not always “triggered.”
Delivered By: Ray Tucker