Journal article icon

Journal article

Structured professional judgment to assist the evaluation and safety planning of suicide risk: the risk of suicide protocol (ROSP)

Abstract:

Background: The Risk of Suicide Protocol (RoSP) is a structured professional judgment (SPJ) scheme designed in line with NICE guidelines to improve clinicians' ability to evaluate and manage suicide risk.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of RoSP in two settings: (1) unexpected deaths of people in the community who were known to mental health services; and (2) an inpatient hospital specializing in the assessment and treatment of patients with personality disorder.

Method: In Study 1, information from a database of unexpected deaths (N = 68) within an NHS health board was used to complete a RoSP assessment (blind to cause of death) and information from the Coroner's Court was used to assign people to suicide vs. natural causes/accidental death. In Study 2, patients (N = 62) were assessed on the RoSP upon admission to hospital and their self-injurious behaviors were recorded over the first 3 months of admission.

Results: (1) Evaluations using RoSP were highly reliable in both samples (ICCs 0.93–0.98); (2) professional judgment based on the RoSP was predictive of completed suicide in the community sample (AUC = 0.83) and; (3) was predictive of both suicide attempts (AUC = 0.81) and all self-injurious behaviors (AUC = 0.80) for the inpatient sample.

Conclusion: RoSP is a reliable and valid instrument for the structured clinical evaluation of suicide risk for use in inpatient psychiatric services and in community mental health services. RoSP's efficacy is comparable to well-established structured professional judgment instruments designed to predict other risk behavior (e.g., HCR-20 and the prediction of violence). The use of RoSP for the clinical evaluation of suicide risk and safety-planning provides a structure for meeting NICE guidelines for suicide prevention and is now evidence-based.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

Actions

Access Document

Publisher copy:
10.3389/fpsyt.2021.607120

Authors

More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Experimental Psychology
Role:
Author


Publisher:
Frontiers Media
Journal:
Frontiers in Psychiatry More from this journal
Volume:
12
Article number:
607120
Publication date:
2021-05-17
Acceptance date:
2021-04-14
DOI:
EISSN:
1664-0640
Pmid:
34079476


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1180671
Local pid:
pubs:1180671
Deposit date:
2021-08-22
ARK identifier:

Terms of use


Views and Downloads

Views and downloads will return soon






If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record

TO TOP