Last week a consensus statement on information sharing and suicide prevention has been published by the Department of Health in England and eight professional organisations including the British Psychological Society. The statement addresses the difficult balance health professionals can face between respecting client confidentiality, whilst at the same time doing everything possible to reduce the risk of suicide and supporting family members. Its introduction says: “We have heard from a number of families bereaved by suicide about their experiences, and issues of confidentiality have been a recurring theme. They have repeatedly raised concerns that practitioners can seem reluctant to take information from families and friends or give them information about a person’s suicide risk.” The guidance emphasises that a person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that they do not. However, it says, “if a person is at imminent risk of suicide there may well be sufficient doubts about their mental capacity at that time”. Read more about this here
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:14:03 +0000
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