Title: Suicide Assessment: A Strengths-Based Approach

Presenters: John Sommers-Flannagan, PhD; Rita Sommers-Flanagan, PhD; and Eddy Fagundo, PhD

Description: Engaging in suicide assessment with clients who are suicidal can feel daunting to counselors, and clients can feel threatened by the process (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2021). Suicide Assessment: A Strengths-Based Approach (Sommers-Flanagan, 2022) presents a suicide assessment process and strategies that deepen the validity of the suicide assessment and supports empathy and relationship building. This Continuing Professional Development combines the recorded video with Dr. John Sommers-Flanagan and Chapter 3 (Suicide Assessment) of his book, Suicide Assessment and Treatment Planning: A Strengths-Based Approach (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2021), and provides counselors with a rationale to: 1. Understand suicide assessment as therapeutic assessment, 2. Know skills and attitudes to be competent in the suicide assessment process, 3. Recognize suicide risk factors, protective factors, and warning signs, 4. Know how to ask about suicide ideation, suicide plans, previous attempts, 5. Describe strategy for responding to irritability, hostility, and hopelessness, 6. Explain collaborative problem-solving and safety planning for assessment, treatment, and decision-making,

Title: Suicide Attempt Disclosures: Helping Survivors Navigate Who, When, and How to Tell Their Stories

Authors: Lindsay Sheehan, PhD; Nathalie Oexle; Silvia A. Armas; Hoi Ting Wan; Michael Bushman; LaToya Glover; Aamir Laique; and Stanley Lewy

Description: The context of disclosing suicidality: An exploration with attempt survivors (Sheehan et al., 2021) provides examples of suicide disclosure and examines how survivors can share about their attempt with risk reduction. Disclosure about suicide has multiple risks including fatal or nonfatal future suicide attempts, stigma-related concerns, and negative impacts on mental health. Strengthening self-reflection, interpersonal relationships, and post-traumatic growth are potential benefits of positive suicide disclosure experiences. While negative experiences can be re-traumatizing for survivors and potentially triggering for others thus increasing suicidal ideation or behavior for vulnerable confidants. The authors of this article describe their findings on three main themes: whom to tell, when to tell and how to tell. This article identifies strategies for counselors on how to best support suicide attempt survivors in navigating self-disclosure.

Title: Suicide Competence and Diversity: Men, Women and Disability

Presenters: Gregg Elliott, PhD; Pamela Cassellius, EdD; John Sommers-Flanagan, PhD; and Kanbi Knippling, M.S.

Description: Counselors have an ethical obligation to maintain their competence in their skills and remain informed regarding best practices for working with diverse populations. This bundle includes the Continuing Professional Development products titled Suicide Among Men and Women: Practices and Implications and Suicide Among People with Disabilities: Practices and Implications. These continuing education products will build on your multicultural and counseling competence in addressing suicide by developing your understanding of suicide in populations that account for about 75% of the deaths by suicide in the U.S. (men) and for which there is limited data on suicide yet experience higher rates of suicidal ideation (persons with disability) and best evidence-based practices for assessing, managing, and preventing suicide for these populations. You will learn from experts in the field whose clinical expertise and research interests include working with suicidal clients and who have authored relevant research and textbooks. For the first time ever, this Continuing Professional Development presents an ACA Student Member: Kanbi Knippling, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate and person with a disability/disabled person.

Title: Suicide Competence and Ethics

Authors: John Sommers-Flannagan, PhD; Rita Sommers-Flanagan, PhD

Description: Suicide Competence and Ethics (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2021) presents a simplified 10-core suicide assessment and treatment planning competencies, ethical considerations specific to suicidality, and postsuicide measures for professional counselors. This Continuing Professional Development resource provides counselors with a rationale to understand suicide competence, recognize and discuss suicide-related ethical issues, and describe postsuicide measures to help professional counselors cope with the loss of a client.

Title: Suicide Risk Factors Among Older Adults: Implications for Counselors as Medicare Providers

Presenter: Mary Chase Mize PhD, LPC, ACS

Description: Based on the counseling dissertation by Dr. Mary Chase Mize, this study, grounded in the interpersonal theory of suicide, sought to understand the relationship between proximal (thwarted belongingness; TB, perceived burdensomeness; PB) and distal (chronic pain, loneliness, and perceived social support) risk factors among older adults who receive home delivered meals (HDM). Understanding relationships between proximal and distal suicide risk factors may inform interventions for counselors to address loneliness, enhance social support, and identify suicide risk among older adults.

Title: Suicide: Identification, Intervention, and Prevention Skills Every Clinician Needs

Presenter: Rita Schulte, MA

Description: This presentation gives a comprehensive road map for navigating assessment, treatment, and management for those at risk for suicide. You will discover how to identify and name primary and secondary drivers that cause suicidal ideation using the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) and Dr. Thomas Joiner’s models. You will be able to assess how ruptures in attachment bonds, emotional dysregulation, a thwarted sense of belonging, and the inability to tolerate distress can lead to suicidal ideation.