A Strategic Planning Approach to Suicide Prevention

If you are involved in developing or expanding a state- or community-based suicide prevention program, this course is for you. This free online training from SPRC can help you identify issues and populations to focus on, select activities that can effectively prevent suicide, and prioritize your efforts to achieve maximum impact. Regardless of your experience with suicide prevention or strategic planning, using a strategic planning approach is a feasible way to improve your prevention efforts. To bring that approach to life, this training presents a case study that illustrates how a community task force applies the strategic planning process to their work. This course is highly recommended for any professional responsible for suicide prevention in states, communities, organizations, schools, or workplaces.

Handouts for this course include the following:

Developing Goals and Objectives

Finding Help with Evaluation

Overview Strategic Planning Approach

Understanding Risk and Protective Factors 

At a Glance: National Data Sources for Suicide

State and Local Data Sources

Locating and Understanding Data for Suicide Prevention

Data is critical to effective suicide prevention, but figuring out what data you need, where to find it, and how to make sense of it can sometimes feel overwhelming. This free online course from SPRC offers step-by-step guidance to help you find and interpret suicide-related data in order to target your prevention efforts effectively. The course explores a variety of commonly used data sources for information on suicide deaths and attempts, suicidal ideation, and related factors—as well as new frontiers in suicide surveillance, such as interactive dashboards and real-time data collection. It also explains key concepts that will help you better understand the data you find. This course is highly recommended for anyone involved in national, state, or community suicide prevention.

Handouts for this course include the following:

At a Glance: National Data Sources for Suicide

Mortality Data Considerations

Accessing Data about Suicidal Behavior among American Indians and Alaska Natives

Data on Suicidal Behavior among College and University Students

State and Local Data Sources

Making a Data Request

Another useful resource is the video Using Data to Prevent Suicide with Dr. Alex Crosby, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC

CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means

Reducing access to lethal means, such as firearms and medication, can determine whether a person at risk for suicide lives or dies. This free online course focuses on how to reduce access to the methods people use to kill themselves. It covers how to: (1) identify people who could benefit from lethal means counseling, (2) ask about their access to lethal methods, and (3) work with them—and their families—to reduce access.


While this course is primarily designed for mental health professionals, others who work with people at risk for suicide, like social service professionals and health care providers, may also benefit from taking it.

Handouts for this course include the following:

The Basics of Firearms

What Clients and Families Need to Know

Clients Who Need Lethal Means Counseling

Firearms Laws Relevant to Lethal Means Counseling

What Clinicians Can Do

Preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)

These training modules are divided into two sections. There are two introductory modules designed to increase awareness, recognition and understanding of adverse childhood experiences and ways to prevent them. They discuss risk and protective factors, outcomes associated with ACEs and evidence-based strategies to reduce or eliminate the impact of ACEs. The second section is geared toward specific professions. ACEs are a significant risk factor for suicide and suicidal behavior.Continuing educati on credits are offered.

Safety planning intervention for suicide prevention

This free online course describes the Safety Planning Intervention and how it can help individuals. It explains when to work with patients to create a safety plan and describes the steps involved in crafting one.

Simmons College School of Social Work SW 464 – Understanding suicide: Prevention, intervention and postvention

This is the syllabus for a spring 2016 course at Simmons College of Social Work. SW 464  – Understanding Suicide: Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention examines the public health problem of suicide. Topics include suicide epidemiology and underlying theory, as well as risk and protective factors for suicide. This course also covers evidence-based practices and ethical considerations with suicidal clients, including learning directly from individuals with lived experience. Other topics include current state and national strategies for suicide prevention, as well as policies related to suicide. The course is intended to provide students with skills in assessment and management of suicide risk, intervention and treatment techniques with suicidal clients, and postvention approaches with survivors of suicide loss.

Preventing suicide in emergency department patients

This online course teaches healthcare professionals who work in an ED how to conduct screening, assessment, and brief interventions, such as safety planning and lethal means counseling. It also addresses patient-centered care for patients with suicide risk, patient safety during the ED visit, and incorporating suicide prevention into discharge planning.

Reframing psychology for the emerging healthcare environment: Recovery curriculum for people with serious mental illnesses and behavioral health disorders

This curriculum is designed to provide psychologists and other mental health professionals with information about the issues faced by people with serious mental health disorders and training in the latest assessment and intervention approaches. It presents a comprehensive training program in mental health recovery-oriented principles and practices to help people with serious mental health disorders recover and achieve their full functional capability. The curriculum consists of an instruction module plus 15 modules or chapters on a broad range of topics. Each of the text modules is fully referenced, contains a list of required readings, a sample learning activity, sample evaluation questions, and a PowerPoint presentation.

Principles of prevention

This 75-90 minute free interactive online course discusses key concepts of primary prevention, the public health approach, and social-ecological model. Interactive exercises cover the prevention of five types of violence: child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, youth violence and suicide. This course teaches the fundamentals of effective violence prevention methods and incorporates the growing body of research on what works. Continuing education credits are available.