Emergencies in Mental Health Practice

Phillip M. Kleespies, PhD, ABPP, VA Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Ma .

• ContentsI. Foundations1. The Domain of Psychological Emergencies: An Overview, Kleespies2. Crisis Theory and Crisis Intervention in Emergencies, Callahan3. The Emergency Interview, Kleespies, Deleppo, Mori, and NilesII. The Evaluation and Management of Life-Threatening Behavior4. The Evaluation and Management of the Suicidal Patient, Clark5. Empirically Based Clinical Evaluation and Management of the Potentially Violent Patient, McNiel6. Crisis Assessment and Interventions with Victims of Violence, Yassen and Harvey7. Life and Death Decisions: Refusing Life-Sustaining Treatment, Kleespies and Mori8. The Emergency Telephone Call, Kleespies and BlackburnIII. Risk Management in Psychological Emergencies9. Risk Management with the Suicidal Patient, Bongar, Greaney, and Peruzzi10. Risk Management with the Violent Patient, Eddy and HarrisIV. Emergency-Related Crises and Conditions11. Responding to Self-Injurious Behavior, Deiter and Pearlman12. The Evaluation and Management of Alcohol and Drug-Related Crises, Trezza and PoppV. Medical Conditions Presenting as Psychological Crises13. Side Effects of and Reactions to Psychotropic Medications, Popp and Trezza14. Psychological/Behavioral Symptoms in Neurological Disorders, White, Marans, and Krengel15. Psychological Symptoms in Endocrine Disorders, Samson, Levin, and Richardson16. Psychological Factors in Cardiac Disease, Clark, Nash, Cohen, Chase, and NiauraVI. The Impact of Emergency Service on the Clinician17. Emergencies with Suicidal Patients: The Impact on the Clinician, Kleespies, Niles, Mori, and Deleppo18. The Stress of Violent Behavior for the Clinician, Guy and Brady19. The Ecstasy and the Agony: The Impact of Disaster and Trauma Work on the Self of the Clinician, Charney and Pearlman

This book clearly and creatively lays out effective techniques for rapidly responding to a wide variety of real-world crises. Empirically solid and clinically astute, this work is without peer as a guide to providing urgent care. When time is of the essence, every practitioner will want to have Kleespies' book within arm's reach. --John Monahan, PhD, Doherty Professor of Law, University of Virginia This book provides an extraordinarily well-stocked workroom of tools necessary for today's clinicians. It begins with an awareness of the appalling deficiency in graduate clinical training to ready mental health clinicians to deal with a wide and anxiety-provoking range of psychiatric crises. It succeeds admirably in providing the essential knowledge and competencies that readers need in order to become effective interventionists. Moreover, it helps clinicians contain and manage both their affect and their exposure to malpractice risk should a patient threaten violence to self or others. With these tools, clinicians can build structures capable of weathering any and all storms. Timely and strategic, this book should be required reading for both novice and experienced professionals. --Alan L. Berman, PhD, author of Adolescent Suicide-