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Featured Resources

Primary Care Toolkit - 4) Patient Management Tools

Primary Care Pocket Card | Office Protocol
Safety Planning Guide | Patient Safety Plan Template
Crisis Support Plan | Patient Tracking Log | Screening Tools

Primary Care Pocket Guide
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/PCPocketCard.pdf
The Pocket Guide for Primary Care Professionals provides:

  1. a summary of important risk and protective factors for suicide
  2. questions you can use to ask patients about their suicidal thoughts, plans, and intent, and
  3. a decision tree for managing the patient at risk for a suicide attempt

The card is designed to be printed on both sides and folded in quarters to fit easily into a pocket. Hard copies of the Primary Care Pocket Card are available for $1 each (minimum order of 10) through WICHE Mental Health Program.  For more information, please contact Mimi McFaul at mmcfaul@wiche.edu (preferred option) or 303-541-0311.

Office Protocol Development Guide for Suicidal Patients
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/OfficeProtocolDevelopmentGuide.pdf
The Office Protocol is a template document to be completed with the staff in each primary care office to define roles, responsibilities, and procedures that will be followed when a patient is identified as being at elevated risk for suicide. Once completed, this protocol becomes an important patient management tool.

Safety Planning Guide
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/SafetyPlanningGuide.pdf
The pocket-sized safety planning guide reminds clinicians of the most important points to cover in collaboratively developing a safety plan with a patient. The Guide was adapted from content developed by Drs. Barbara Stanley and Gregory Brown and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Safety Planning Guide ©2008 Barbara Stanley and Gregory K. Brown, is reprinted with the express permission of the authors. No portion of the Safety Planning Guide may be reproduced without their express, written permission. You can contact the authors at bhs2@columbia.edu or gregbrow@mail.med.upenn.edu.

Patient Safety Plan Template
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/SafetyPlanTemplate.pdf
The Patient Safety Plan Template is filled out collaboratively by the clinician and the patient and then used independently by the patient to help ensure his or her safety in daily life.  The Safety Planning Guide (above) can be used as a source of questions to use to facilitate development of the safety plan.

Safety Planning Guide ©2008 Barbara Stanley and Gregory K. Brown, is reprinted with the express permission of the authors. No portion of the Safety Planning Guide may be reproduced without their express, written permission. You can contact the authors at bhs2@columbia.edu or gregbrow@mail.med.upenn.edu.

Crisis Support Plan
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/CrisisSupportPlan.pdf
The Crisis Support Plan is used by the patient and the clinician to enlist social support from a trusted friend or relative should a suicide crisis recur. It explains roles that supportive individuals can take to help protect the person at risk for suicide and serves as an informal contract that the designated support person will fulfill these roles. Active support of a friend or loved one is among the strongest factors that protect against suicide.

Suicidality Treatment Tracking Log for Patients at Heightened Risk
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/TrackingLog.pdf
Patients at risk for suicide should be tracked and contacted periodically to monitor their suicide risk. The period immediately following a suicide crisis, especially after an attempt or hospitalization, is marked by extremely high risk for a suicide attempt. Regular, frequent contacts with these patients, even a brief check-in by phone, can be very protective.  This log is one of many approaches that may be taken.  Patient record flags may also be used to color code files to designate elevated suicide risk.

Screening Tools for Depression and Substance Abuse:

MacArthur Depression Screening and Management Resource
URL: http://www.depression-primarycare.org/clinicians/toolkits/
Tools for screening and managing depression within a primary care setting have been developed by The MacArthur Initiative on Depression and Primary Care and are available free of charge online.

Alcohol Abuse Screening – American Public Health Association
URL: http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/B03B4514-CCBA-47B9-82B0-5FEB4D2DC983/0/SBImanualfinal4_16.pdf
"Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention: A Guide for Public Health Practitioners". This manual provides the information, skills and tools needed to conduct screening and brief intervention (SBI) to help at-risk drinkers reduce their alcohol use.

Screening for Tobacco, Alcohol and Other Drug Use – National Institute on Drug Abuse
URL: http://drugabuse.gov/nidamed/screening/
This Web-based interactive tool from the National Institute on Drug Abuse guides clinicians through a short series of screening questions and, based on the patient's responses, generates a substance involvement score that suggests the level of intervention needed. The tool also provides links to resources for conducting a brief intervention and treatment referral, if warranted.

 

Order a Toolkit Now: Hard copies of the toolkit are available for $25.00 through WICHE Mental Health Program. For more information, please contact Tamara DeHay at tdehay@wiche.edu (preferred option) or 303-541-0254.