Know the Latest Suicide Prevention Treatments? Register by June 26 to Earn 2 Ethics CEs This Friday, June 28

Social workers often have not received formal training on the most effective suicide prevention therapies. Fix that by joining instructor Ruth Cassidy, LCSW, MDiv, this Friday, June 28 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET for an interactive live-virtual training, Ethics Cultural Competence: Suicide Prevention, and earn 2 CEs, including 2 ethics CEs. Cost is just $40, NASW members; $52, nonmembers.

You’ll learn three suicide prevention techniques and their associated action plans, ways to identify high-risk clients and groups, various assessment and treatment models to draw on in clinical practice, and the power of postvention. Registration deadline is June 26.

According to Cassidy, this training is “not a standard suicide prevention for clinicians. It's really a [mutual] conversation. … and how [might] we make this a conversation amongst clinicians. And it’s about what you have to sort out in your own life.… This is a course that is very personal in talking to the clinician about where they are in their life with their faith practices, what their cultural norms are, and whether they can be present with a client who is struggling.”

In addition to explaining the two evidence-based practices that decrease suicide and cohort-specific information such as the role social media may play in Generation Z suicide rates, Cassidy first wants social workers to ask clients “the question.”

“Number one, do the assessment,” she says. “You're never in a session--whether it's intake, whether it's the final termination--where you're not doing a safety assessment at some point in the conversation…. and ask the questions, ‘Are you feeling suicidal? Are you feeling like you'd like to die?’ “Not ‘Are you safe?’ Not ‘Are you going to hurt yourself?’ The question is, ‘Are you thinking about taking your life?’ And you do a form of that every session and chart it.

“Then second, you know how to do a safety plan, which is very easy. Third, you know how to comfortably and competently talk to somebody about their firearm storage. Those are all things that social workers are not taught in school, and I will be covering these gaps in the training.” 

Read more of Cassidy’s interview about how social workers can help prevent suicide here and then register by Wednesday, June 26 for this important training.