Emergency Medical Evaluation of Dangerousness

Purpose:  Intake universal assessment for suicide, homicide, or suicide/homicide chief complaints.  Assess risk of near-future violence (both homicidal and suicidal) among children and adolescents.

Age:  8 to 24 years

Admin:  Completed by examiner

Time:  Paper-and-pencil: 10-20 minutes

           Electronic: 2-5 minutes

Qualification Level:  B or S and/or workshop training certification

Test Structure

ACUTE© Suicide and violence Assessment

Adolescent and child urgent threat evaluation

eMed International Inc®

Suicidal and Homicidal Assessments

Related Links

• Standardization sample included 542 children and adolescents ages 8-24 years and consisted of four study groups: (a) non-threat, (b) suicide threat, (c) homicide threat, and (d) homicide-suicide threat.
  
• Internal consistency coefficients range from .70 to .85. 
  
• Test-retest reliability coefficients range from .71 to .97.
  
• Interrater reliability coefficient: .94.
  
• Concurrent validity with Clinical Assessment of Depression (CAD™), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI™), and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ™)
  
• Sensitivity 87.5; specificity 90.4
  

Technical Information

Features and Benefits

At a Glance

• Terms and Conditions
  

• Quality Assurance Program
  

• Clinician Benefits
  

• Description of Qualification Levels
  

• Schedule Training
  

• World-wide Validation
  

• Why eMed Colorado™?
  

• Questions and Answers on Antidepressant Use in Children, Adolescents, and Adults
  

• AHRQ Studies Detail ED Use for Mental Health & Substance Abuse Disorders
  

• Assists clinicians in the evaluation of children and adolescents regarding near-future (hours to days) risk for violent or suicidal behaviors.
  
• Provides clinicians with meaningful information beyond traditional risk evaluations that can be used in a variety of settings (ER, General Practice, Schools, etc.)
  
• Can be used as part of a threat assessment; as a tracking tool to help determine risk levels in association with treatment plans, patient settings, and social and family situations; or to assess transitions from inpatient to outpatient care following hospital discharge or following an adverse drug reaction.
  
  

Evaluate a child’s or an adolescent’s actual, attempted, or threatened act to harm him- or herself or others with this 27-item structured assessment. Based on information obtained through various sources, including patient interview, chart review, and family interview, the ACUTE© provides an overall threat classification (extreme, high risk, moderate, or low clinical risk factors) as well as cluster scores, including Precipitating Factors, Early Precipitating Factors, Late Precipitating Factors, Predisposing Factors, Impulsivity, and the ACUTE© Total score.