Unrealistic Expectations for Suicide Prevention: Implications for Counseling Centers

Counseling centers are under intense pressure to prevent student suicide. When a student dies by suicide, the counseling center practitioner may be held liable as though all such deaths are ultimately preventable. Expectations that suicide can be prevented 100% of the time conflict with the actual capabilities of treatment providers and disregard their limited power to control the behavior of others. These expectations also fail to recognize that mental health professionals' ability to accurately predict suicide is no better than chance. Nonetheless, the unattainable demands placed on clinicians do not originate with higher education but from the treatment community itself. Some of the consequences of these high expectations regarding the behavior of clinicians are reviewed. A plea is made for the treatment community to adopt more reasonable expectations internally and to promote them outwardly among stakeholders.