Follow the conference on X #RiskAssesmentsMH
“Instead of stratification, practitioners are recommended to explore risks collaboratively, understand changeable safety factors, and co-produce safety plans. Risk is too variable to rely on static categories—it demands nuanced, relational care.”
Staying Safe From Suicide Guidance, NHS England, June 2025
“Let’s stop stratifying, let’s stop saying this looks low risk because as we know, there is this low risk paradox where in fact 82% of people have died by suicide are deemed to be low risk.”
Dr Esther Sabel, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, CAMHS Crisis Team Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, October 2025
“Risk and the evaluation of risk is used to determine who should and should not get into services. Obviously the most serious simplification of the use of stratification and prediction of risk is this missed opportunity to prevent suicide and to save lives.”
Dr Leah Quinlivan, Research Fellow & Chartered Psychologist, NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration, The University of Manchester, October 2025
In this conference we will learn from lived experience, research and national developments from leading experts about best practice in mental health risk assessment and safety planning. The focus of this conference will be on the guidance from NHS England ‘Staying safe from suicide’ which highlights best practice for safety assessment, formulation and management in mental health services:
“Every day, 17 people die by suicide in the UK. Of those, five are in contact with mental health services, and four of those five (80%) are assessed as ‘low’ or ‘no’ risk at their last contact. Suicide prediction tools, scales, and stratification (for example, into low, medium, or high risk) are flawed because suicidal impulses are highly changeable and can shift in minutes. The use of static risk stratification, often based on simplistic questions, is still widespread, but it is unacceptable. This guidance sets out a replacement approach that puts safety assessment, formulation, management and planning in the context of relational, therapeutic engagement, which is known to improve outcomes.”
Staying Safe From Suicide Guidance, NHS England, June 2025
This conference will enable you to:
Network with colleagues working to improve person centred risk assessment and safety planning
Reflect on the lived experience of suicide
Understand how we can overcome the challenges in assessing and managing suicide risk in inpatient settings
Update your knowledge on national developments
Understand how you can support people in crisis to access crisis care services with speed and ease
Developing your skills in crisis prevention and care planning
Understand positive risk taking: working with people to facilitate positive risk taking
Reflect on the impact of compassion fatigue on patient safety
Ensuring all people experiencing mental health crisis receive a personalised and holistic care plan
Understand the NICE Guidelines for Self-Harm and the changes it recommends for risk assessments in mental health
Learn the training requirements for staff working with people at risk of suicide
Recognise the need for collaboration between healthcare providers and mental health advocates
Learn from the use of a violence risk prediction tool in early intervention in psychosis services
Support people with strategies for consistent and accurate risk assessment
Identify key strategies for supporting recovery and preventing relapse
Reflect on how you can provide high quality care to people at risk in mental health services
Understand how strengths and needs of a person who self-harm are identified via psychosocial assessment
Supports CPD professional development and acts as revalidation evidence. This course provides 5 Hrs training for CPD subject to peer group approval for revalidation purposes
