What would you do?
“I woke up this morning and decided I didn’t have anything to live for. I told my dad that he would find me dead when he came home,” said Michelle, a 13-year-old girl sitting in a hospital bed. Her father reacted to his daughter’s declaration by bringing her to the hospital. I was asked to assess Michelle.
After some introductions and an explanation as to why I was there, Michelle agreed to speak with me by herself.
“So, was today the first time you’d had thoughts of killing yourself?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, “I woke up tired of feeling this way, you know, depressed.”
“Have you thought about how you might try to kill yourself?”
"Not really; I figured I’d look around the house to see what I could use,” she stated.
What would you do next? Is this a person who needs to be hospitalized? How would you handle this situation differently if you were seeing Michelle in your office instead of a hospital?
Suicidal behaviors and suicidal ideation represent some of the most challenging things we deal with as clinicians.
Watch this recording to learn how to help your most vulnerable clients with the real-life skills and knowledge they don’t teach in graduate school.