Recommended Standard Care for People with Suicide Risk

Course overview

Course Description: This course examines the recommended standard care framework for identifying and supporting individuals at elevated suicide risk across health care settings, including outpatient and inpatient behavioral health, emergency departments, and primary care. Developed by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, the course begins by establishing the public health urgency of suicide, including its disproportionate impact on young adults and the rising national rate despite overall improvements in health care. Participants will explore the three critical gaps in care failure to proactively identify risk, failure to act effectively for safety, and failure to provide supportive contacts as well as the evidence-based interventions that address each gap: standardized risk screening and stratification, collaborative safety planning with lethal means reduction, and caring contacts. The course also presents setting-specific standard care protocols outlining the essential roles of clinicians across practice environments in making health care suicide safe. This course on recommended standard care for people with suicide risk is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop or increase their knowledge of evidence-based suicide risk identification, safety planning, and caring contact protocols across health care settings. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. Authors: National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: Transforming Health Systems Initiative Work Group Learning Objectives: This course will provide a professional with detailed information about recommended standard care for people with suicide risk across health care settings. Specifically, the practitioner will: 1. Identify the three critical gaps in care failure to identify risk, failure to act for safety, and failure to provide supportive contacts that contribute to preventable suicide deaths. 2. Apply the evidence-based standard care elements of suicide risk screening. 3. Describe setting-specific suicide safe care protocols in primary care and other clinical environments. Citation: National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: Transforming Health Systems Initiative Work Group. (2018). Recommended standard care for people with suicide risk: Making health care suicide safe. Education Development Center, Inc.