ABSTRACT
Where does the negotiator go from there? It is not uncommon for negotiators to manage incidents like the one above. In fact, statistics suggest that up to 50 percent of calls managed by crisis response teams are people who are depressed and threatening suicide. Therefore, it is important that negotiators understand what leads people to plan to take their own lives. This chapter focuses on the symptoms of and management of depression, a defi nition of suicide, the characteristics of suicidal people, assessing the risk of
suicide and interventions that negotiators can use to reduce the chance that a person will complete the suicidal act. It should be clear from the start that negotiators cannot expect to prevent every suicide. However, the more negotiators know, the more they can prevent.
