Suicide Prevention
The Suicide Responsive Agency: A workshop for management
If a service user or a staff member suicided would your organisation be found wanting?
A suicide responsive agency is more than sending staff to suicide prevention training
A suicide responsive agency is more than sending staff to suicide prevention training
Take the opportunity in this learn-by-doing workshop to audit whether your organisation: a) provides an appropriate and safe whole-of-service response to engage and support a suicidal person;b) has clear clinical governance guidelines, policies and procedures and referral pathways for both crisis intervention and ongoing support contexts;c) meets the legal and ethical obligations and ensure compliance with relevant professional codes of conduct;d) ensures that the staff are operating in a competent and safe manner within their scope of practice e) provides appropriate clinical supervision and debriefing
Using ethical dilemmas, real life scenarios participants will collectively workshop what systems, policies and procedures and workforce competency is required to provide an optimal and safe response. The identified solutions will then be codified and applied to the either exisiting or new policies and procedures based on the organisation specific context; e.g educational institution, social service agency. Suicide postvention and suicide contagion management will also be covered.
Drawing on the presenter's experiencing on assisting coroners, participants will undertake an exercise where a coronial investigation lens will be applied to a death by suicide scenario. Optional Follow-Up Q&A session: Participants also have the option of attending a follow-up Q&A online session where participants are able to workshop draft policies and procedures or other management issues that have arisen from attending the workshops.
Topics Covered:
Drawing on the presenter's experiencing on assisting coroners, participants will undertake an exercise where a coronial investigation lens will be applied to a death by suicide scenario. Optional Follow-Up Q&A session: Participants also have the option of attending a follow-up Q&A online session where participants are able to workshop draft policies and procedures or other management issues that have arisen from attending the workshops.
Topics Covered:
- Legal and ethical obligations in suicide
- Clinical Governance
- Workforce Development and Scope of Practice
- Staff Supervision and Debriefing
- Agency Policies and Procedures
- Referral Pathways
- Postvention Policies and Procedures
Reflecting on and Processing Suicide in Supervision: An online course for counselling / clinical supervisors
Based on the latest suicide prevention research evidence, workforce development and sector capability building are critical strategic actions required to achieve a confident and competent workforce. This includes having clinical supervisors who are skilled to assist the supervisee to:
- reflect on their interaction with a suicidal person
- gain insight of the dynamics of that interaction
- process the impact that the interaction has had on them
To reduce the high rates of suicide in this country a workforce and confident and competent in assessing risk and providing ongoing support to suicidal people is essential.
Recent coroners’ findings highlighted the need for workers in the health, social services and counselling / psychotherapy sectors to regularly update their knowledge and competency in suicide risk assessment, crisis intervention and providing on-going therapeutic support
This training should be a core part of practitioner's ongoing professional development. Advanced practitioners such as counsellors, psychotherapists and clinicians should not only be knowledgeable about suicide risk assessment but also highly competent in undertaking an assessment and assessing the level of risk. However, Identifying suicide risk is only one aspect of working with the suicidal person. The increasing demand on mental health services means that front line workers are often having to provide ongoing support for those who are vulnerable to suicide but are assessed as not being in imminent danger of suicide.
Based on the latest suicide prevention research evidence, workforce development and sector capability building are critical strategic actions required to achieve a confident and competent workforce. Examples of this are: - The provision of advanced suicide prevention training workshops designed so that participants are proficient in the presecibed competencies for counsellors and clinicians scope of practice - Having clinical supervisors who are skilled to assist the supervisee to: - reflect on their interaction with a suicidal person - gain insight of the dynamics of that interaction - process the impact that the interaction has had on them
It is with these outcomes in mind that this workshop for clinical / counselling supervisors was developed. Being offered for the first time in Aotearoa-New Zealand, this workshop provides an opportunity for supervisors to reflect on their own understanding and experience of the suicidal client as well as the issues around suicidality that the supervisee raises in supervision.
The workshop will focus on the different issues and dynamics across the suicidal continuum - pre-suicidal, suicidal ideation, imminent danger, suicidal behaviour and attempts, death by suicide.
Topics covered:
Recent coroners’ findings highlighted the need for workers in the health, social services and counselling / psychotherapy sectors to regularly update their knowledge and competency in suicide risk assessment, crisis intervention and providing on-going therapeutic support
This training should be a core part of practitioner's ongoing professional development. Advanced practitioners such as counsellors, psychotherapists and clinicians should not only be knowledgeable about suicide risk assessment but also highly competent in undertaking an assessment and assessing the level of risk. However, Identifying suicide risk is only one aspect of working with the suicidal person. The increasing demand on mental health services means that front line workers are often having to provide ongoing support for those who are vulnerable to suicide but are assessed as not being in imminent danger of suicide.
Based on the latest suicide prevention research evidence, workforce development and sector capability building are critical strategic actions required to achieve a confident and competent workforce. Examples of this are: - The provision of advanced suicide prevention training workshops designed so that participants are proficient in the presecibed competencies for counsellors and clinicians scope of practice - Having clinical supervisors who are skilled to assist the supervisee to: - reflect on their interaction with a suicidal person - gain insight of the dynamics of that interaction - process the impact that the interaction has had on them
It is with these outcomes in mind that this workshop for clinical / counselling supervisors was developed. Being offered for the first time in Aotearoa-New Zealand, this workshop provides an opportunity for supervisors to reflect on their own understanding and experience of the suicidal client as well as the issues around suicidality that the supervisee raises in supervision.
The workshop will focus on the different issues and dynamics across the suicidal continuum - pre-suicidal, suicidal ideation, imminent danger, suicidal behaviour and attempts, death by suicide.
Topics covered:
- The role of supervision around suicidality - identifying supervision outcomes
- Legal and ethical considerations for working the suicidal client
- Did I miss anything? - the impact of suicide on the confidence and competence of the practitioner
- Suicide and trauma
- The completed suicide
- Accompanying a practitioner through the coronial process
When Someone Mentions Suicide: An exploration of the legal and ethical obligations when responding to suicide in therapeutic or support settings
Working with a client who is suicidal can create a certain level of anxiety, personal responsibility or even be burdensome. These reactions which are not uncommon, can be viewed as very reasonable human responses to the dynamics when engaging with the client's suicidality. Added to this are the legal and ethical obligations which regulate different professional codes of practice.
Previous workshops' discussion and issues raised in supervision and debriefing indicate that for many professionals there is often an unspoken fear is that if a client was to suicide, would a coronial investigation find the professional's practice wanting or even negligent.
This workshop lifts the lid and encourages a frank and honest discussion of both the spoken and unspoken issues that professionals experience when working with a suicidal client.
It unpacks all of these issues and examines how these reactions and fears can influence the response to the suicidality.
It does a deep dive into the underlying theory that informs the legal and ethical obligations pertaining to the prevention of suicide. It clarifies what is considered reasonable and safe within the professional's scope of practice.
The workshop provides participants the opportunity to update their knowldege and to reflect on the implications that these obligations have on their practice.
This is achieved by processing the information with the other participants in small group discussions and excercises.
This is achieved by processing the information with the other participants in small group discussions and excercises.
Custodians of Hope: Supporting the suicidal person Workshop: This workshop's content used to be covered in the Custodians of Hope: Supporting the suicidal person workshop. The feedback from participants was that the topics were extremely valuable and worthy of a stand alone workshop to allow for more considered discussion. Participants enrolling in either the Confident & Competent Suicide Prevention Training Series or Custodians of Hope: Supporting the suicidal person workshop would benefit from also attending this workshop.
Topics covered:
- Legal and ethical obligations for suicide and their implications in therapeutic and support settings
- Suicide knowledge and competency expectations in scope of practice
- Duty of Care in the context Suicide prevention and intervention
- When does duty of care finish?
- Confidentiality and the Privacy Act
- Referral Pathways
