Asking about suicide. "Are you suicidal" or "are you having thoughts of suicide" invite a "no" answer. It's a difficult topic and patients have every reason in the world to answer no, even if they're having such thoughts.

Instead I ask "when was the last time you thought about hurting yourself or taking your own life?" I get drastically different answers. Unless the answer is a convincing "never," my typical follow-up question is "what's the closest you've ever come to acting on those thoughts?"

The answers tend to be very, very illuminating in my experience.

Similarly if asking about guns, I never ask if they have guns. I ask if they have a gun cabinet or other safe location to store guns. Patients who have told the nurse or social worker "No I don't have guns" have then told me about their unsecured guns.