What is the primary purpose of a suicide assessment?

The primary purpose of a suicide assessment is to identify risk factors and needs associated with a person's mental state and circumstances. This assessment focuses on understanding the individual's current emotional and psychological situation, recognizing warning signs, and identifying specific risk factors such as a history of mental illness, substance abuse, recent life stressors, or prior suicidal behavior.

By concentrating on risk factors and needs, a suicide assessment helps clinicians to gauge the immediacy and severity of suicidal thoughts, intentions, and behaviors, allowing for more tailored and effective interventions. This includes establishing the level of risk, whether it is acute or chronic, and understanding the individual's needs for support and coping strategies. This foundational step is crucial for ensuring that appropriate resources and treatment options are made available to those at risk.

The other choices, while relevant to various aspects of mental health care, do not encompass the primary function of a suicide assessment as comprehensively as identifying risk factors and needs does. For instance, diagnosing mental illness and determining treatment plans are processes that can occur following the identification of suicide risk, but they are not the primary focus of the initial assessment. Likewise, while screening for general health is important, it is not specific to the urgent need to assess suicidal risk.