Engelsk titel: In the shadow of suicide risk
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Författare:
Stangeland, Tormod
Email: tmst@ahus.no
Språk: Nor
Antal referenser: 45
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 16053835
Sammanfattning
In cases influenced by elevated risk of suicide, the therapists’ need to regulate their own sense
of unease may overshadow the treatment needs of the adolescent. The field of acute psychiatric
treatment must be informed by established theory of relational difficulty as well as new empirical
knowledge of the patient group. The field should make explicit the therapists’ needs to 1) make
correct assessments, 2) demonstrate that they take their patients seriously, and 3) take over
responsibility for adolescents who are unable to protect themselves from danger. The influence of
these needs is demonstrated by clinical example drawn from the author’s experience. There is a lack
of systematic attention to the emotional reactions of the therapists and how these reactions impact
decision making in treating suicidal adolescents. The Norwegian guidelines for suicide risk
assessment provide help in counteracting suicide on an overall level. They may have been
misunderstood by the clinical field as instructions to avert single cases of suicide. This
misinterpretation is particularly problematic for patients suffering from chronic suicidality, where it
and the focus on acute risk assessment may increase the therapists’ sense of unease. The
guidelines should be clarified to resolve this issue and encourage the field to stress therapeutic work
with respect to chronic suicidality.