American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. | 2001 | ISBN: 088048828X | 218 pages
Suicide remains all too common in the United States. As the ninth leading cause of death—responsible for 30,000 deaths annually—it is also one of the more preventable causes of death. Increasingly, mental health clinicians must care for suicidal patients within managed care systems. Managed care’s cost-driven focus on rapid assessment and triage, narrowly restrictive hospital admission criteria, and abbreviated inpatient stays have resulted in poorer clinical care and increased opportunities both for adverse outcomes such as suicide and for clinician liability. Bringing together a unique mix of clinicians, authorities, and administrators from private practice and managed care, Treatment of Suicidal Patients in Managed Care offers practical guidance on how to improve care and reduce risk for suicidal patients.