Sally Spencer-Thomas – 2-Day Comprehensive Suicide Risk Assessment & Intervention: Work with Clients with Compassion and Confidence

Outline

OVERCOME BIAS AND FEAR

Prepare to do suicide work with compassion and confidence

• Self-Reflection: Time to unpack our own baggage
• Countertransference
• Our own history with suicide

HOT TOPICS IN SUICIDOLOGY

Evaluate the latest developments and their impact on assessment and intervention

• The latest data, and what to do with it
• Mental health and suicide
• Alcohol and suicide
• Opioids and suicide
• Additional forms of trauma and suicide
• Aspiring to Zero Suicide
• Why “Means Matter”
• Understanding the many forms of the suicidal mind
• Soul exhaustion

COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO SUICIDE RISK ASSESSMENT & TREATMENT

Determine where to enter the prevention stream, and how to navigate successfully

• Upstream, midstream, and downstream approaches
• Build resilience and crisis inoculation
• Earlier identification and triage
• Trauma-informed care
• Learn from the experiences of suicide attempt and loss survivors

RISK ASSESSMENT

Elicit key information from clients

• The many paths to suicide
• Communicate caring: Language to impart compassion and avoid stigma
• Suicide risk assessment
  • SAFE-T
  • IS PATH WARM
  • Ideation, plan, means, intent
  • Level of risk
• Standardized assessment tools to augment clinical judgment
• Obtaining collateral information
• Types of questions to uncover suicidal ideation
  • What if they say “No”?
  • What if they say “Yes”?
• Behavior chain analysis
• Why “No Suicide” contracts are dead
• Best practices in risk assessment

COLLABORATIVE SAFETY AGREEMENTS AND WELLNESS PLANNING

Help clients regulate emotions and feel safe, valued and connected

• Set up a safety agreement that is more likely to be followed
• Reduce access to lethal means (C.A.L.M.)
• The “Stop, Drop, and Roll” of suicide safety planning
• Treatment strategies built on preserving choice and dignity
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy
  • Relapse prevention plans
  • When and how to hospitalize

MAKING MEANING

Help clients reinvest in a life worth living

• The PIE of life – brainstorm possibilities of growth
• Narrative psychology and the power of storytelling
• Cultivate social connection and re-engagement
• Choice and perspective
• Foster gratitude and a spirit of contentment after loss
• Measurements of post-traumatic growth

SAFE AND EFFECTIVE SUICIDE GRIEF & TRAUMA RESPONSE

Implement suicide grief and trauma support

• Understand the unique nature of suicide grief
• Peer-based support: Connect clients to other survivors of loss
• Access and reclaim compassion