Suicide: What Mental Health Professionals Need to Know

This eCourse was adapted from a live presentation. All course materials have been archived for you to access anytime.

Worldwide, more people die by suicide than from all homicides and wars combined. In the United States, one person dies by suicide every 15 minutes, and one person attempts suicide every 38 seconds. More than two-thirds of therapists have worked with a client who has attempted suicide, while one in five will actually lose a client to suicide. For the general population, suicide is often a silent tragedy. For those of us in the mental health profession, it is the most common psychiatric emergency we face. Taking the subject of suicide out of the shadows can mean the first step to saving a life. One of the scariest things we can experience is the fear that someone we know may be suicidal.  As individuals, we can all learn the CPR of suicide prevention, how to recognize warning signs, implement helper tasks and get those in need to the help they require. As mental health professionals, we can be educated on how to better understand, assess and treat suicidal individuals. In this eCourse, Dr. Lisa Firestone will provide an in-depth understanding of the dynamics in suicide and of the legal, ethical, and case management issues when dealing with suicidal clients. She will outline the most up-to-date and effective treatment methods and provide training that can help save a life.

All materials will be available online, so participants can go at their own pace. The eCourse includes 3.5 hours of video and a supplementary article. 

This  eCourse will:

• Provide the latest findings on warning signs and risk factors for suicide.
• Offer a conceptual model and a developmental perspective on the dynamics underlying suicide.
• Explore the internal struggle the ambivalence of suicide through expert interviews and insight provided by three survivors of very lethal suicide attempts.
• Address both objective assessment and the formation of clinical judgment.
• Inform participants about recent research on empirically validated treatment approaches.
• Provide participants with state of the art crisis management strategies and opportunities to practice them.

Course Outline

1. Introduction  and Theory
2. Development of Risk
3. How Suicide Occurs
4. Assessment
5 . Risk Factors
6. Safety Planning
7. Practice Recommendations
8. Brief Interventions
9. Effective Treatment
10. Conclusion  and resources

CE Information:

You have the option to purchase 5 CE credits for this eCourse. The CEs are available through our CE provider, R. Cassidy Seminars, for an additional $15.

Any questions about this eCourse? Email us at [email protected]

Or call (805) 681-0415 Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM PST