Teaching the Fundamentals of the Risk Assessment Interview to Clinicians

The ability to predict a person's risk of acute suicide is one of the most important skills in the practice of psychiatry. This article reviews the essential components of suicide assessment in a concise format meant to be learned and taught to psychiatrists at various levels of training. Strategies for assessing a person's existential state, imminent warning signs, lethality of planned suicide attempts, and protective factors in an empathetic, collaborative approach are reviewed. Finally, a brief overview of the Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE) approach, a well-validated approach to obtaining a thorough and empathetic suicide assessment that is useful in cases where suicidality is not obviously apparent, is given. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2016;46(5):293–297.]