Suicide Risk Assessment

A suicide risk assessment is an estimation of the probability a person will commit suicide or take their own life. They are essentially measures of the level of suicidality or suicidal ideation in an individual. A clinician may use a suicide risk assessment in order to determine the risk of a patient committing suicide in order to determine if they should be placed in psychiatric care or under observation.

There are various suicide risk assessments available for clinicians. The Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI, currently the MSSI or Modified Scale for Suicide Ideation), Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire (SBQ), Suicidal Affect Behavior Cognition Scale (SABCS), and the Suicidal Intent Scale (SIS) are all examples of suicide risk assessments.