The question whether levels of psychopathology and symptom severity among university counseling center client populations are increasing or not has received a great deal of attention in professional psychology. We examined 12-year archival intake records of a university counseling center to test for trends regarding: (a) the overall number of…

Advancements in the delivery of community-based services and tight utilization management of high-cost treatment options result in youths with serious behavior problems receiving intervention in lower levels of care than was true ten or fifteen years ago. This shift in where services tend to be delivered necessitates enhancement of risk assessment…

We examined whether caregivers of bipolar patients reporting current suicidal ideation and/or a history of a suicide attempt reported higher levels of burden and/or poorer health compared to caregivers of patients without these suicidality indices. In a cross-sectional design, caregivers (N = 480) associated with (a) patients with current suicidal…

Because high school faculty have infrequently been asked their views about high school suicide, 167 high school teachers from five high schools in four school districts were administered a questionnaire that asked about a variety of issues related to suicide and high school students, including the nature of the problem, risk factors, and…

Research indicates that mental health social workers risk being confronted with fatal and nonfatal client suicidal behaviors during professional practice. Although reactions to client suicidal behavior have been documented, there is little empirical evidence about coping behaviors and available supports following client suicidal behavior. This…

Background: Evaluated trajectories of adolescent depression and their correlates in a longitudinal study of a community sample: early onset (by age 15) with major depression (MDE) recurrence between 15 and 20; early onset with no recurrence; later onset of major depression after age 15 with and without recurrence by 20; and never-depressed.…

Long-standing policy controversies have heated up as a result of increasing proposals for using schools to screen for mental health problems (e.g., depression screening). This brief highlights the following issues: (1) How appropriate is large-scale screening for mental health problems? (2) Will the costs of large-scale mental health screening…

This study evaluated gender differences on the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL) specifically among older adults, a population known to have the highest suicide rate among all age groups, with older men being disproportionately at risk. Community-dwelling women (n = 175; M age = 69.0 years; 81% Caucasian) and men (n = 145; M age = 69.5 years; 76%…

Suicide among older people, especially men, is a significant problem. In this study the applicability of the compensatory, the risk-protective, the challenge, and the protective-protective models of resiliency for the prediction of suicidal ideation from depression (the risk factor) and sense of belonging to the community (the protective factor)…

The current article addresses the issue of warning signs for suicide, attempting to differentiate the construct from risk factors. In accordance with the characteristic features discussed, a consensus set of warning signs identified by the American Association of Suicidology working group are presented, along with a discussion of relevant clinical…

Sexual minority youth are among those most likely to report suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts (suicidality). This article reviews suicidality risk factors among sexual minority youth, considering both that are common to all youth as well as factors unique to these young people. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Reviews recent studies of prison suicides, whose results call into question conventional belief that longer term prisoners rarely kill themselves. Studies suggest that completed suicide in prison is serious public health problem and that, for certain subgroups, risks of completed suicide approach, and perhaps exceed, those of jail detainees.…

In this study we examined adolescent risk behaviors, giving special attention to suicide ideation. Cluster analysis was used to classify adolescents ( N = 2,730) on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Six clusters of adolescent risk behavior were identified. Although each risk cluster was distinct, some clusters shared overlapping risk behaviors.…

Even 200 years following the conclusion of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, questions remain about whether Meriwether Lewis' death was a suicide. The purpose of this article is to consider this issue by examining historical evidence from a psychological perspective. A risk factor model for suicide assessment (Sanchez, 2001) is employed to evaluate…

While college campuses are relatively safe environments, the promise of safety and security on campus was shattered by a single gunman on April 16, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, shot 49 students and faculty, killing 32, before killing himself. The authors are psychologists and directors of university counseling centers; they…