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  • Youth Suicide: Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention for Schools


Youth Suicide: Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention for Schools

Course Title

Youth Suicide: Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention for Schools

Course Number

ISCA 309

Course Overview

This workshop will provide extensive information on the role of schools in youth suicide prevention and intervention and best practices in the aftermath of a student suicide. The program objectives will enable participants to:

  • Know the incidence of youth suicide and analyze the foundational issues for youth suicide.
  • Identify adverse experiences for youth and how they contribute to youth suicide.
  • Identify protective factors that prevent youth suicide.
  • Identify key components of suicide screening and developing a safety plan with students and the importance of documenting all steps taken for student safety.
  • Identify key components of parent notification and documentation of parent notification and discussing suicide proofing the home of the student.
  • Develop a comprehensive best practices model for suicide postvention to help staff and students manage their emotions.
  • Identify students most likely to be at-risk to imitate suicide and steps needed to minimize contagion.
  • Identify best practices for memorialization after a student suicide.
  • Analyze the prevention lessons from legal cases in the U.S. where schools were sued after a student suicide.
  • Analyze the complex relationship between bullying and suicide.


SE:A1:3 Develop self-awareness and self-management skills essential for mental health

SE:A1:4 Take action (individually or with support) to positively impact one’s own mental health

SE:A1:6 Develop healthy ways to identify, express, and respond to one’s emotions

SE:A1:13 Identify the signs of stress and use techniques for reducing stress

SE:A2:6 Differentiate between situations requiring peer support and situations requiring adult or profes sional help

SE:B1:1 Develop effective coping skills to manage challenges

SE:B1:3 Apply effective problem-solving and responsible decision-making skills to make safe and healthy choices

SE:B1:5 Demonstrate when, where, and how to seek support for solving problems and making decisions


Professional Standards

B-SS 2. Provide appraisal and advisement in large-group, classroom, small-group and individual settings

B-SS 3. Provide short-term counseling in small-group and individual settings

B-SS 4. Make referrals to appropriate school and community resources

Ethical Standards

A. Responsibility to Students

A.9. Serious and Foreseeable Harm to Self and Others

A.6. Appropriate Referrals and Advocacy

A.10. Underserved and At-Risk Populations

A.11. Bullying, Harassment and Child Abuse


Intended Audience

This training will be of value to all school staff members and is specifically designed for administrators, counselors, psychologists, and social workers.

Essential Questions

  1. What does current data reflect about youth suicide and which students are most at-risk?
  2. What are the protective factors that reduce suicidal behavior and how can we utilize and foster these protective factors as school staff?
  3. What are the key steps in suicide screening, developing safety plans for students, and partnering with parents for student safety?
  4. What are the key components of developing and implementing a comprehensive best practices model for suicide intervention, prevention, and postvention in our schools?
  5. What is the relationship between bullying and suicide?



Knowledge

Skills

Participants will have knowledge about:

Participants will be able to:

  • the incidence of youth suicide.
  • adverse experiences for youth that contribute to youth suicide.
  • protective factors that prevent youth suicide.
  • key components of suicide screening and developing safety plans with students.
  • key components of parent notification.
  • the importance of referring suicidal students to community based mental health professionals and providing follow up support at school.
  • creating a reentry program and support for a suicidal student returning to school from a hospital.
  • analyze the foundational issues for youth suicide in their own schools.
  • identify the adverse effects that may contribute to youth suicide in their own schools.
  • share with parents and school staff what the protective factors are that prevent youth suicide.
  • develop/identify suicide screening tools and safety plans in preparation for implementation when a student expresses suicidal thoughts.
  • develop parent notification protocol and documentation tools.


About the Facilitator

Scott Poland, Ed.D

Professor at Nova Southeastern Universities College of Psychology

Director of The Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University

I worked in schools full time as a psychologist and director for 26 years and am still very involved in school crisis response and consultation. I have provided on-site assistance after suicides in many school districts and consulted with many other school leaders and counselors around the world after the loss of a student to suicide.

Figuring out how to prevent youth suicide has been my highest professional priority. I have presented more than 2000 times on the topic of school crisis and suicide intervention. I am a licensed psychologist and an internationally recognized expert on youth suicide and school crisis and have authored and co-authored seven books on the subject.

Additionally, I have authored Suicide Safer School Plan for the state of Texas, the Crisis Action School Toolkit on Suicide (CAST-S) for Montana, the Florida (STEPS) School Toolkit for Educators to Prevent Suicide, and am currently working with the state of Maryland and New Jersey on toolkits. I have helped develop numerous prevention, intervention, and postvention training modules for the Jason Foundation. I have written numerous NASP Best Practices chapters on suicide intervention and contributed to the After a Suicide Toolkit for Schools for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

I am past President of the National Association of School Psychologists and past Prevention Division Director of the American Association of Suicidology.


Dates and times of offerings

April 25, 2024, 11:00AM to 2:00PM GMT

Contact hours

3 contact hours

Time commitment between sessions


Required Resource(s)


References



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