Creating Safety Through Connection: Understanding Suicide, Assessing for Risk, and Developing Safety

Program Description

This training equips clinicians with a practical, compassionate, and evidence-based approach to understanding and responding to suicide risk in clinical practice. Participants will deepen their understanding of suicide through the use of appropriate language and relevant statistics to support informed, stigma-reducing care. The presentation will emphasize gathering the client’s story to recognize warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors that inform suicide prevention efforts and clinical decision-making. Participants will also build greater comfort and confidence in suicide risk formulation, collaborative safety planning, and the application of evidence-based suicide risk assessment and safety planning tools to support client safety and therapeutic engagement.

Learning Objectives

• Understand suicide using appropriate verbiage and relevant statistics to improve clinical practice.
• Learn to gather the client’s story to recognize warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors that may reduce suicide risk.
• Develop greater comfort and confidence with suicide risk formulation and collaborative safety planning.
• Gain knowledge of evidence-based suicide risk assessments and safety planning tools to support clinical practice and suicide prevention efforts.