A Strategic Approach to Suicide Prevention in High Schools
This webinar provided an overview of the research on school-based suicide prevention programs and identified resources that can be helpful in developing and implementing your own program. In addition, it offered examples of how two states developed programs to prevent suicide in a variety of school systems, including those serving ethnically diverse students. While this webinar focused on high schools, some of the information may be applicable to any grade level.
Objectives: In this webinar, participants working to prevent suicide learned how to:
- Explain how a strategic approach to suicide prevention can be used in high schools
- Identify resources for use as part of a strategic approach (e.g., Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools)
- Describe the efforts of two states to be strategic and culturally appropriate in their approach to school-based suicide prevention.
Additional Resources:
This video features Kentucky school principals, staff and parents who have experienced suicide loss, including suicide contagion in the school, and steps schools can take to reduce suicide and suicide attempts among their students. This video can be used with staff training, but is not appropriate for youth or children. To access a copy of the video itself, please contact Jan Ulrich (jan.ulrich@ky.gov).
Event Presenter(s)
Presenter(s):
Phil Rodgers, PhD, Evaluation Scientist, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Chris Miara, MS, Director of Operations and Resources, Suicide Prevention Resource Center
Patricia Breux, RN, BSN, Youth Prevention Specialist, Suicide Prevention Center of New York State
Jan Ulrich, State Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Kentucky Division of Behavioral Health
Patti Clark, MBA, CPS, Project Coordinator, Kentucky Division of Behavioral Health
Moderator:
Rosalyn Blogier, LCSW-C, SAMHSA Public Health Advisor
Presenter Biographies:
Philip Rodgers, PhD, is an Evaluation Scientist for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. For the past nine years, he has managed the Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention in collaboration with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. The Best Practices Registry provides a listing of suicide prevention programs, policies, tools, and materials, which have been reviewed and approved by experts in the field. Dr. Rodgers has given numerous presentations and workshops regarding suicide prevention and the evaluation of suicide prevention programs. He earned his undergraduate degree in experimental psychology from California State University Los Angeles and his doctorate in research and evaluation methodology from Utah State University.
Chris Miara, MS, is a Senior Project Director at the Education Development Center, Inc., with many years’ experience planning, implementing, and evaluating government-funded programs to prevent injuries, violence, and suicide. She is Director of Operations and Resources at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. In collaboration with the National Association of Mental Health Program Directors and with funding from SAMHSA, Ms. Miara also played a key role in the development of “Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools.
Pat Breux, RN, BSN, is the Youth Prevention Specialist at the Suicide Prevention Center of New York (www.PreventSuicideNY.org), which is an agency of the New York State Office of Mental Health Suicide Prevention Initiative. In her role at the Center, she provides training, consultation and access to research and best practices in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention to schools and youth serving organizations across the state. Her work in Chemung County received National recognition from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with a Science and Service Award in 2008. She received the Advocate of the Year Award from Families Together in NYS in 2009 and the Excellence in Education Award from the Western NY Chapter of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2010. She is a certified SafeTALK, CONNECT Postvention and QPR trainer, a Master Trainer of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and a provider of Lifelines trilogy of trainings. She is the lead developer of “Creating Suicide Safety in Schools Workshop” which has been endorsed by the New York Association of School Psychologists.
Jan Ulrich is the State Suicide Prevention Coordinator with the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities. Jan has been involved with suicide prevention and awareness efforts on a national, state and local basis since 2002, after the issue of suicide touched her family very personally. She was a member of the Kentucky Suicide Prevention Group (KSPG) from 2002 to 2007, and served on the KSPG board for several years prior to her employment with BH/DID in 2007. Jan has been a certified QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Trainer since 2004 and a QPR Master Trainer (T4T). She is a recipient of NAMI KY Prevention Partner Award, and Mental Health America of KY Advocacy Award for her work in suicide prevention. Jan is also the founder of the Suicide Prevention Consortium of Kentucky (SPCK – Live Long).
Patti Clark, MBA, CPS, is currently the project coordinator for Kentucky’s Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention Grant, under the Kentucky Division of Behavioral Health. The Suicide Prevention Efforts for Adolescents in Kentucky focuses on suicide prevention efforts for youth and the families in the state with emphasis on school-based implementation, LGBTQ suicide prevention and resilience development, and suicide prevention for military personnel and their families. She is a certified prevention specialist.
Prior to working in suicide prevention, she was a project coordinator for Kentucky’s Underage Drinking Strategic Prevention Framework project in Owen County, Kentucky where binge drinking among high school youth was reduced by 36% over a two-year period. She is a SPF master trainer and co-wrote the evaluation portion of Kentucky’s SPF manual. She also teaches the needs assessment portion (Step 1) of Prevention Academy for the state.
Prior to her work in prevention, Patti was a newspaper publisher and community advocate, organizing a variety of events and activities and bringing together community members to address issues.
She is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University (BA Journalism) and Sullivan University (MBA). She is currently working on her Master of Divinity degree at Luther Rice University in Atlanta.
Rosalyn (Roz) Blogier, LCSW-C, is a licensed clinical social worker with a wide range of experiences in child welfare, adoption, community mental health, substance abuse, out-patient psychotherapy and wellness programming. She became a Public Health Advisor with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2008 and currently serves as the coordinator for the Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program.
The Role of High School Teachers in Preventing Suicide
The Role of High School Mental Health Providers in Preventing Suicide
Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools