Utility and Application of Psychosocial Needs-Based Assessment: Mental Health Provider Perspectives

In this course, Dr. Jacinta Hawgood, senior lecturer and Program Director of Suicidology at the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, Griffith University, provides information on why a comprehensive psychosocial needs-based assessment for the prevention of suicide is necessary. The talk is focused on research she did on the use of structured professional judgment through the STARS protocol (STARS-p) and how much STARS-trained clinicians use the protocol (long-term) for assessing suicidality. The study wanted to know why clinicians were using STARS, what the associations were between their use of the protocol and various demographic and clinical characteristics, and how the STARS protocol could be improved in practice. The findings are explained.