What’s the Risk? A Critical Response to ‘Reformulating Suicide Risk Formulation’

Access 'Reformulating Suicide Risk Formulation: From Prediction to Prevention' (2015) here. 

"I came across the article ‘Reformulating Suicide Risk Formulation: From Prediction to Prevention’ (2015)  by Anthony R Pisani, because it is part of the framework for suicide prevention pathways being introduced in Queensland where I work. I attended a training co-facilitated by Tony Pisani with a consumer representative from Grow NZ, in Cairns in 2019. I enjoyed the training and I found him a warm presence and a good teacher. The framework is easy to understand and to remember, and I believe that Pisani and team developed it largely for these qualities: it is practical, it makes sense, and it can be readily taught and applied in practice.

Pisani encourages us to focus on Prevention rather than Prediction (the latter of which he acknowledges in the article is not possible).There is a broader question for me, about the “lenses” we look through: even with a focus on prevention instead of prediction, could we still be looking too intently through the “risk” lens, perhaps missing other lenses which might also help us understand and connect with people?

I invited Dr Chris Ryan to join me in this episode of Book Club to help me address this broader question of mine, after making a connection with him on a MHPN webinar and having long been aware of his work in the field."  

— Dr Mary Emeleus, on her chosen text for Book Club
 

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Enjoyed this episode? To learn more...

READ

'The validity and utility of risk assessment for inpatient suicide' (2011) here. 
 

WATCH

Mary and Chris’s webinar here.