Development of a suicide screening instrument for use in a remand centre setting

In penal settings it is important to be able to quickly discriminate which kinds of self-destructive behaviours carry a larger suicide potential and which inmates present a greater suicide risk. This paper is a preliminary report of the first phase of a suicide research project conducted at the Calgary Remand Centre, Calgary, Alberta which has entailed the development of a tool for screening potentially suicidal inmates. The Suicide Checklist was designed for use by the nursing staff of the Centre to provide a screening process which would be: (a) reliable; (b) valid (within the broad constraints and difficulties inherent in any attempt to predict dangerousness to self); (c) standardized; (d) quick and feasible to implement; and (e) a combination of clinical and past history variables. This paper identifies some of the issues which have surrounded the development of this tool and presents findings from an initial reliability study.