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Suicide is considered to be the leading cause of preventable death in prisons. While there is increasingly expansive literature examining the various risk factors associated with a likelihood of eventual prison suicide, so far this has struggled to lead to successful prevention programmes. An alternative approach is needed that seeks to understand, at the individual level, what leads a prisoner to contemplate ending their own life. This book describes how the authors developed and delivered evidence-based psychological interventions for suicide prevention in prison.The authors present a compelling argument for a psychological approach to the prevention of prison suicide, drawing upon a cognitive behavioural perspective, with chapters investigating two novel psychological therapies: Cognitive Behavioural Suicide Prevention and Problem Solving Training. The methodology behind each study is presented alongside preliminary findings emerging from the evaluations, and detailed case studies are included as exemplars of the process and content of the therapies, as well as the individual and contextual challenges to be overcome. The book provides timely research into the development of a better understanding of why prisoners engage in suicide behaviour, and the preventive interventions showing the most promise for future investigation.The Prevention of Suicide in Prison will be critical reading for clinical and forensic psychologists, psychological therapists, psychiatrists and other mental health staff working within a prison context, as well as postgraduates in training and researchers studying suicide in forensic settings.

This practical and informative text lays out the product of a number of years of clinical research into suicide behaviour and its prevention. While the focus is on non-affective psychosis and the schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, the mechanisms underlying suicide behaviour in this group may well underlie or at least influence suicide behaviour in other disorders. The authors describe methods of assessment through individual formulation, and a cognitive behavioural intervention through case studies, to reduce the risk of suicide.This book argues that: · Suicide behaviour lies on a cognitive-behavioural continuum from ideation, through intention to action. · Mechanisms based on biased information processing systems, the development of suicide schema, and appraisal styles are likely to be fruitful in explaining suicidal thoughts and behaviours. · A psychological theory of suicide behaviour is needed in order to develop a mechanism of suicide and to understand the components of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. · Suicide risk can be reduced through the use of the intervention methods described within the textCognitive Behavioural Prevention of Suicide in Psychosis evaluates practical applications of contemporary research on this topic, and will therefore be of interest to practitioners, post-graduates in training, and researchers studying suicide and/or psychosis.