Working with Suicidal Individuals: A Guide to Providing Understanding, Assessment and Support

*Highly Commended in the Psychiatry Category of the 2011 BMA Book Awards* Working with Suicidal Individuals provides a comprehensive guide to understanding suicide, the assessment of risk, and the treatment and management of suicidal individuals. It begins by covering the theory behind suicidal behaviour, using Transactional Analysis to explore the personality types of suicidal individuals and to understand their motivations. Factors that contribute to an individual becoming suicidal, such as mental illness, are also explored. A comprehensive system for the assessment of suicide risk is provided, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Finally, the author discusses different ways suicidal and pseudo-suicidal individuals can be managed and treated, including the 'no suicide contract' and redecision therapy. Case studies are included throughout to demonstrate the theory and practice. This book will be essential reading for all those working with a suicidal or at-risk individual, including practitioners in health, social work, psychotherapy, psychology and counselling.

Table of Contents:
Part 1. Understanding Suicide. 1. Introduction. 2. What is Suicide? 3. Transactional Analysis. 4. The Suicide Decision. 5. Modeling Suicidal Behavior. 6. Reactions to High Stress. 7. Suicide and Self-Harm. Part 2. Assessing Suicide Risk. 8. Quantitative Measures of Assessing Suicide Risk. 9. Qualitative Measures of Assessing Suicide Risk. Part 3. Supporting the Suicidal Individual. 10. The Suicide Secret and the Deliberate Suicide Risk. 11. Pseudo-Suicide, Suicide and Teenage Suicide. 12. Suicidal Ambivalence. 13. Suicidal Timelines. 14. The No-Suicide Contract. 15. Redecision Therapy. Epilogue. Appendix A: Stopper Analysis. References. Further Reading. Index.

About the Author :
Tony White has been a registered psychologist in private practice for the past 29 years, and is a teacher and supervisor of Transactional Analysis psychotherapists. He has worked with suicidal individuals for many years, including spending three years working in a prison identifying and managing suicidal and self-harming inmates.

Review :
The book is filled with useful facts, effective methods of working with drug users, examples and answers to many questions, including the question: What's love got to do with it? In summary, I find this book relieves fear about drugs and activates the full potential for working with addicts. essential reading for frontline practitioners and clinicians working with people at risk of suicide and harm in the neurodisabilitty field. Tony White, writing from extensive experience, provides a guide that will be useful to any therapists or counsellor working with people who are or may become suicidal... The presentation of transactional analysis is simple and sufficient. It can be understood without prior training in TA, an it clarifies the rest of what is presented in this book... I encourage readers not to wait for the next edition; this book is a valuable resource for all therapists. the most thorough and effective that I have found, especially for this life and death issue... This is a splendid book, perfect for newcomers as well as for those long in the field. As I read I began to smile: you have taught us all to do the great detective work required for these people. I hereby christen you the Poirot of Psychotherapy - a Detective Extraordinaire!!! This is especially helpful for all clinicians who have not yet studied these issues and do not have a large scale of practical experience in working with suicidal individuals... I am sure that this valuable and well written book will be a helpful and interesting reading for many professionals, also from the TA community. This book may be considered essential reading for a variety of professionals, including mental health practitioners and social workers, who work with suicidal or at risk individuals... As I revisited the book I appreciated even more the depth of the knowledge, the richness of White's experience and expertise, and the need for careful attention to so many areas when working with potentially suicidal individuals. Tony gives a good coverage of the ego state model of transactional analysis. This leads to the decisional aspect of personality and "the suicide decision". An understanding of the suicide decision is important in managing suicidal individuals... I highly commend this book to anyone interested in this current social issue and to all practitioners. The value of Working with Suicidal Individuals: A guide to Providing Understanding, Assessment and Support, by psychologist Tony White (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) rests on its practical side evidence in the subtitle. Running from theories of suicidal behaviour to a transactional analysis of personality types, it looks also at motivation, as well as Quantitative and qualitative approaches to risk assessment. The book removes the shade of taboo and stigma from people who have made a suicide attempt or have suicidal thoughts This book, written in an understandable and clear style, with many real life examples by an experienced therapist, can be of use not only to professionals dealing with suicide, but also to the common reader interested in inner life. The experience and competence of Tony White's counselling suicidal clients is evident. He inspires confidence in others finding themselves working with such clients by his thorough analysis of suicide decisions, how to assess risk via a range of quantitative and qualitative tools, and how to contract effectively to support the client to live differently. Contemporary research into suicide is combined with the classical and re-decision traditions of transactional analysis theories to provide an underpinning map to orient professional thinking and actions. Additionally he shares his expertise in working with high risk groups of prisoners and adolescents, and also describes working with those who self-harm, to create a useful and necessary guide.