JCAHO Requirement

The Joint Commission on Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will institute a requirement on January 1, 2007, that every facility or organization that is surveyed under the JCAHO's hospital or behavioral health care standards have a plan for identifying patients who are at risk for suicide.

To help organizations comply with the new mandate, APA and the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems (NAPHS) will sponsor a telephone conference call on Wednesday, November 1, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time.

The experts scheduled to participate in the conference call are Douglas Jacobs, M.D., president and CEO of Screening for Mental Health Inc. and chair of the APA work group that developed the Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients With Suicidal Behaviors, and Robert Wise, M.D., vice president for standards in JCAHO's Division of Standard and Survey Methods. Discussants on the call have expertise in implementing suicide risk assessment programs.

The fee for the program is $150 for members of APA or NAPHS; it is $225 for nonmembers.

Additional information about the program, including how to register, is available online at<www.naphs.org> or by phone from Brenna Zwanzig at (202) 393-6700, ext. 106.▪