Suicide-Specific Interventions and Best Practices

Course overview

Traditionally, the treatment of individuals at risk for suicide has emphasized the person's primary psychiatric disorder as the focus of treatment. Current guidelines based on the accumulation of evidence about treatment efficacy indicates that this approach is insufficient. The data on suicide rates in the U.S. support the need for improved identification and treatment of at-risk individuals. Gaps in training programs have resulted in clinicians lacking exposure to effective methods to identify and treat suicidal individuals. At the organizational level, routine implementation of evidence-based practices that can identify and intervene with at-risk individuals has been lacking for many years and remains so in many settings. The goal of this course is to provide all healthcare professionals in the acute care setting with knowledge about evidence-based, suicide-specific interventions.