Suicide-related assessment
Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ)
Suicide-risk screening followed by clinician assessment; no numerical risk score, diagnosis or declaration of safety.
Reference information · Questionnaire
- Last content update
- 2026-10-26
- Clinical review
- Not independently reviewed
- Source jurisdiction
- See individual sources
- Coverage
- Questionnaire
| Field | Instrument context |
|---|---|
| Version | NIMH toolkit 9/29/25; adult administration only |
| Population | Adults in medical settings; administered by staff with an established clinician response pathway. |
| Respondent | clinician_interview |
| Recall period | Items 1–2: past few weeks; item 3: past week; item 4: lifetime; item 5: right now. |
| Purpose | Suicide-risk screening followed by clinician assessment; no numerical risk score, diagnosis or declaration of safety. |
Assessment tool
Ask the patient:
Responses stay in this page’s memory. Reset or leave the page to clear them. No patient identifiers are collected.
Interpretation & limitations
- No to all first four questions: negative screen; clinical judgment can override it. Yes to any first four: ask the current-acuity question and alert the responsible clinician. Current thoughts endorsed: acute positive screen; urgent clinician evaluation is required. No current thoughts after a positive first-four screen: non-acute positive screen; clinician assessment determines next steps. Adult refusal is not itself a positive screen: document it and review any other safety concerns; this implementation reports indeterminate rather than negative. No numerical risk score or declaration of safety is produced.
References · 2
- NIMH ASQ toolkit and administration guidance · NIMH toolkit is a free resource for medical settings; ASQ is free of charge. US government-authored material; maintain source attribution and exact questions.
- NIMH official ASQ screening tool 9/29/25