Suicide assessment and evaluation strategies: a primer for counselling psychologists

Suicide is a recognized national health risk in many countries. In order to effectively intervene in suicidal crises, it is important for mental health professionals to understand facts about suicidal behaviour, procedures for assessing an individual's risk of self-harm, and the evaluation of the lethality of a client's suicidal gestures. With updated knowledge and proper training, counselling psychologists can play a vital role in suicide prevention. This paper summarizes for counselling psychologists current statistics about suicide, general and specific risk factors for suicidality, and assessment tools used to evaluate suicidal risk.