Best Practices for Suicide Prevention to Postvention

Suicide prevention can seem like a daunting undertaking for any workforce, but as the number of deaths by suicide keep increasing, it becomes a necessary public health issue to be addressed within health care. Currently the 10th leading cause of death, suicide claims more lives than traffic accidents and exceeds more than twice the number of homicides. Although most individuals, including children and adolescents, who eventually die by suicide, receive health care services in the month prior to death, providers at the point of care often do not detect suicidal thoughts. A comprehensive approach to suicide prevention includes strategies for prevention, identification and assessment of at-risk individuals, intervention, and postvention. Organizations must ensure staff have the appropriate knowledge and skills at every level. Join Relias and the National Council for this important conversation.

By the end of this session, participants were able to:

• Review suicide prevention best practices
• Explore a framework to provide support around building internal and external capacity for suicide prevention with practical interventions.
• Discuss postvention strategies when providing services to those directly affected by or bereaved by {someone else’s} suicide.
• Discuss training and skills application best practices for putting suicide prevention into action.