Citation

Stanley IH, Simpson S, Wortzel HS, Joiner TE. Behav. Sci. Law 2019; 37(3): 304-312.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.2409

PMID

31063254

Abstract

Few clinical practices are as important for simultaneously augmenting patient safety and mitigating legal risk as the judicious evaluation and stratification of a patient's risk for suicide, proportionate clinical actions based thereon taken by the healthcare provider, and contemporaneous documentation of the foregoing. In this article, we draw from our combined decades of multidisciplinary experience as a clinical psychologist, forensic psychiatrist, medical malpractice attorney, and clinical psychology trainee to discuss the documentation of suicide risk assessment and management as a conduit to patient safety and legal risk mitigation. We additionally highlight documentation as a core clinical competency across disciplines and note areas of improvement, such as increased training, to bolster documentation practices.

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en