2.1 What is Imminent Suicide Risk?

What is Imminent Suicide Risk?

• An individual who possesses both a desire and strong intent to die, with the means and capability of doing so in the imminent future.

• Involves clinical judgement and can be tricky to determine.

• Important question to ask oneself when determining whether a patient is at imminent risk of suicide:
  • “If I do not take any action right now, do I think it is likely that this person will kill themselves?”. If the answer is yes, this would be considered “imminent risk.”

• E.g., a patient morbidly and cryptically bids farewell to their provider, says they’re ready to end it all, and tells them they’ve made up their mind and aren’t going to be here for their next scheduled session.