On August 30, 2017, Sweetwater Union School District held: Best Practices: Suicide Prevention in Schools as part of a series of professional development opportunities it offered to school counselors in the district at their professional development center in Chula Vista. Richard Lieberman is a former School Psychologist for Los Angeles Unified School District. Richard worked as an expert in the School Psychologist Suicide Prevention Unit and coordinated the "Youth Suicide Prevention Program" within the School Mental Health Division for the over 1200 schools and one million students, staff and parents of Los Angeles Unified School District.
As we were just starting our first week as interns, the session provided a perfect opportunity to obtain information about suicide and prepare for an issue that may emerge in the upcoming school year.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults between the ages of 15-24, but school and district leaders are frequently unprepared to respond to a suicide event. In this training Richard Lieberman provided us with best practices to create suicide prevention and intervention programs we will share some important key points from the training.
Suicide What Should Schools Do? The Model Policy.
Richard lieberman discussed the importance of several different aspects of a model suicide policy. First, schools need to carefully plan curriculum units about youth suicide prevention. There is no single predictor to suicide and that is why it is so important for school counselors and staff to build relationships with students. ALL staff must receive training in risk factors and warning signs of suicide, suicide prevention, intervention, referral and postvention ANNUALLY. Schools not only need to offer training, but ensure the training is under direction of school mental health professionals. Each year it is important to adjust and review emerging best practices. The following are several things that protect students from youth suicide:
- Good relationships with other youth
- Seeks adult help when needed
- Lack of access to suicidal means
- Access to mental mental health care
- Religiosity
- School environment that encourages help seeking and promotes health
- Family cohesion and stability
- Coping and problem solving skills
- Positive self worth and impulse control
- Positive connections to school and extracurricular participation
- Successful academically
Counselors must know the warning signs of suicide to best support students and advocate for them.
What should parents do?
Parents should be included in all suicide prevention efforts and policies and procedures should be shared. It is vital that Policies easily accessed on webpages of school district that list warning signs of suicide, crisis helpline numbers and who to contact in the district for assistance. Parents also should not be afraid to have conversations about suicide. In additions parents should know and have access to the risk factors and warning signs of suicide. Parents should act immediately to get help and remove all lethal means within the household.
Cultural Considerations:
Another huge component discussed in interventions is taking cultures into consideration and knowing the community that you serve. This is done through the following:
- Identify cultural-related needs of community.
- Obtain community resources to meet diverse needs.
- Have prevention materials translated into native languages
- Have translators available.
- Know the traditions, rituals, and belief systems of your diverse population.
Evidence Based Prevention Curriculum
Signs of Suicide Prevention Program which was discussed as a resource in the training is incorporated into the suicide prevention curriculum and is the first school-based suicide prevention program to demonstrate significant reductions in self-reported suicide attempts. SOS is a school-based gatekeeper training for that incorporates suicide awareness with a brief screening for depression and other risk factors associated with suicidal behavior. The program is based on the action steps ACT “acknowledge, care, and tell” through which individuals are taught to acknowledge the signs of suicide that others display and take them seriously, demonstrate care for the at-risk individual, and tell a responsible adult. The program’s teaching materials consist of a video and a discussion guide. The video features dramatizations that depict the signs of suicidality and depression and the recommended ways to react to someone who is depressed and suicidal. It also includes interviews with real people whose lives have been touched by suicide. Students also are asked to complete the Columbia Depression Scale (CDS), a brief screening instrument for depression, derived from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (Aseltine and DeMartino, 2004).
Postvention, now what?
Below is the postvention checklist. A few key aspects that we found to be important was ensuring school sites have memorial protocols. Schools also should avoid holding services on school grounds because all student deaths should be treated in the same way. In addition permanent memorials on campus should be discouraged. One great way to honor the student and bring the community together is to have grieving friends and family create a suicide prevention effort. The school and students can also partner and be involved in this.
Natalie Weinstein and Tessa Leon
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