Main description:

In Suicide Prevention Contracting: The Pitfalls, Perils, and Seven Safer Alternatives, Edwards and Goj expose one of the biggest myths operating in health care and human services for forty years or more. This book will challenge clinicians and their superiors who see Suicide Prevention Contracting (SPC) as a state-of-the-art standard of care intervention. No medical or mental health care professional, educator, lawyer, or health and human services decision maker can afford to ignore what this book presents. A family of new clinical terms and interlinked concepts, describing virtually every aspect of SPC is clearly articulated and ready for use in the workplace. Not until now has a book so simply yet comprehensively explained the widespread troubling practice of SPC. Written in an accessible narrative style, this landmark book presents vital information about a questionable suicide prevention intervention operating within this era of evidence-based practice and personal legal risk protection and, in doing so, offers seven safer alternative procedures.

Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments
Symbols and Abbreviations
Introduction: Evidence Base behind this Book
Part 1: Current Understanding of Suicide Prevention Contracting
Chapter 1: A personal journey with SPC
Chapter 2: Historical review
Chapter 3: Definitions
Chapter 4: Causes of current concern
Part 2: A New Understanding of Suicide Prevention Contracting
Chapter 5: Profile of contemporary SPC
Chapter 6: The anatomy of contemporary SPC
Part 3: The Potential-to-Cause-Harm Profile of Suicide Prevention Contracting
Chapter 7: How SPC can compromise treatment
Chapter 8: The role of no suicide assurances in clinical practice
Chapter 9: Contraindications for SPC
Part 4: Alternatives to Suicide Prevention Contracting
Chapter 10: Seven alternatives to SPC
Conclusion
Frequently Asked Questions
Appendices: Teaching Tools
Useful links
Index
About the Author