Strategies and Interventions to Reduce Suicide

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based on material published in The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and is available as an open-access article. Reducing suicide-related mortality is a global imperative declared by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2014). The persistent trends in suicide necessitate action among mental health care providers and payers, researchers, and community leaders. The suicide prevention movement has been gaining momentum as organizations, advocates, and others have increasingly collaborated on effective strategies. Healthcare settings provide an important opportunity for suicide intervention and prevention, but they cannot yet fully manage suicide risk because of a lack of training, knowledge gaps, and reimbursement challenges. School, workplace, and community-based interventions can help reduce the incidence of suicidal behavior, as can better access to care and reduced access to lethal means of suicide (Hogg et al., 2021; National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, 2017; Pistone et al., 2019). To better understand the strategies to improve access to effective interventions to prevent suicide, the Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a two-part virtual public workshop, Strategies and Interventions to Reduce Suicide, on June 22, 2021, and July 28, 2021. The presentations and discussions examined the scope of the public health problem, discussed the implementation of effective approaches for suicide prevention care, and addressed the known barriers to health care access. This course on strategies and interventions to reduce suicide is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. In addition, this course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced-level practitioners who wish to develop their knowledge of strategies and interventions to reduce suicide. The course material includes a literature review of interventions and research. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require continuing clinical education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article that includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A significant benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: Andrada, Nass, and Alper Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding strategies and interventions to reduce suicide. Specifically, a professional will: Recognize the scope of the public health problem of suicide, with a focus on data regarding suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and death by suicide Describe the effectiveness of approaches and interventions to reduce harm and prevent the risk of suicide Identify policy opportunities to support, improve, and implement early interventions to prevent suicide Recognize areas where further attention is needed to improve the quality of care for individuals at risk of suicide Describe suicide trends in US subgroups Citation: Andrada, A., Nass, S. J., & Alper, J. (2022). Strategies and Interventions to Reduce Suicide. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.17226/26471