Event & Training Types: General Webinar

Promoting Mental Health and Preventing Suicide among Older Adults

Older adults die by suicide at a higher rate than the national average. Every year, more than 5,000 Americans over the age of 65 die by suicide, a death toll that is largely preventable. Elderly white men have the highest rate of suicide of all demographic groups in the U.S.  Although suicide rates of older Americans have been slowly declining for many years, older men and women of every race continue to die by suicide, and the need for prevention is urgent.  This webinar reviews the research associated with suicide among older adults, including risk and protective factors and effective suicide prevention strategies.  In addition, this webinar will specifically address the issue of suicide risk and prevention in the context of community programs and residential facilities.
 

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the scope of the problem, including risk and protective factors related to suicide among older adults
  2. Summarize research findings regarding effective suicide prevention strategies for this population.
  3. Report the key findings from focus groups and interviews with senior living center staff regarding their knowledge, attitudes and practices related to mental health promotion and suicide prevention.
  4. Access a new toolkit funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration titled “Promoting Mental Health and Preventing Suicide in Senior Living Communities.”

Event Presenter(s)

Yeates Conwell, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry, Vice Chair in the Department of Psychiatry, and Co-Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He received his medical training at the University of Cincinnati, and completed his Psychiatry Residency and a Fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. In addition to teaching and clinical care, Dr. Conwell directs a multi-disciplinary program of research in suicidal prevention, with a special emphasis on later life. He is a consultant to suicide prevention efforts in the United States, Europe, and China, and serves as a member of the Steering Committee of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

Ms. Miara 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 training and administration 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 “Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention: A Toolkit for Senior Living Communities.” She directed EDC’s efforts to use the results of an environmental scan and formative research to create a guide and training manual for the toolkit.

Rosalyn (Roz) Blogier graduated with a Master of Science Degree in Social Work from Simmons College, Boston MA where her studies were funded by a two-year NIMH grant in Community Mental Health Services to the Cambridge/Somerville, MA Mental Health Catchment area. Upon graduation, she briefly worked in child protective services and then was employed as an out-patient mental health therapist for a number of years in a variety of settings and locations. She worked in a community health center on the mental health unit, served in the department of psychiatry for a large urban health maintenance organization and maintained a private practice. Additionally, she served as the family program director on an inpatient drug and alcoholism treatment unit. She has engaged in treatment with individuals, couples and groups as well as creating psycho-educational programs in the areas of stress management, addiction, eating disorders and women’s issues. Roz moved with her family to The Netherlands for seven-and-a-half years, where she had a private practice that included running groups for parents with challenging children and completing home studies for expatriates adopting children domestically and internationally. She continued working in the field of adoption upon her return to the Washington, DC area before becoming a Public Health Advisor with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2008.

Webinar Presentation Slides

Webinar Recording

TIP 50: Addressing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Substance Abuse Treatment

TIP 50 “Addressing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Substance Abuse Treatment” was recently created by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at SAMHSA to provide a practical manual for substance abuse counselors and their supervisors to assess and treat high-risk clients.  The presentation will be interactive, with opportunities  to ask questions. The presentation will be interactive, with opportunities to ask questions.

Event Presenter(s)

Kenneth R. Conner, Psy.D., MPH, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Co-Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has training in psychology and public health and specialized training in suicide research through a NIMH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship and a NIAAA-sponsored career development award. His suicide research primarily focuses on alcohol and drug use disorders. He was the Chair of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Substance Abuse Treatment panel that developed a Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) for suicide prevention entitled “Addressing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Substance Abuse Treatment”, and led the effort to create a VA-sponsored training tape based on the TIP.

Webinar Presentation Slides

Audio Presentation

Identifying common goals to broaden program ownership

This podcast describes how Ohio State University’s suicide prevention program identified shared goals and interests among campus stakeholders. Program Manager for Ohio State University’s Suicide Prevention Program talks about identifying shared goals and interests among campus stakeholders. Wendy Winger talks about identifying shared goals and interests among different campus stakeholders. Wendy is the Program manager for the Ohio State University’s Campus Suicide Prevention Program, which serves the main campus in Columbus, Ohio as well as 

Webinar Presentation

Suicide Prevention among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: Expanding the Frame and Broadening Our Approaches

This webinar will focus on reducing risk for suicide and increasing positive outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.

Event Presenter(s)

Effie Malley, MPA is Director of the National Center for the Prevention of Youth Suicide at the American Association of Suicidology. She previously worked at the national Suicide Prevention Resource Center where she co-authored a white paper (Suicide Risk and Prevention for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth) and served as lead developer of a workshop kit for staff in schools, youth-serving organizations, and suicide prevention programs (Suicide Prevention among LGBT Youth: A Workshop for Professionals Who Serve Youth). She will briefly describe these resources and the practice implications of modifiable risk and protective factors.

Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW is Director of the Family Acceptance Project, the only community research, intervention, education and policy initiative that works to promote family acceptance and to decrease major health and related risks for LGBT youth, including suicide, in the context of their families. Dr. Ryan has worked on LGBT health and mental health issues for 35 years and focuses on promoting the well-being of LGBT children and youth in families, schools and communities. She will discuss research that she and her team have conducted over nearly a decade that has identified specific behaviors that families and caregivers use to express acceptance and rejection of their LGBT children’s identity and then established the relationship between these accepting and rejecting behaviors with depression, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and sexual health risks, as well as health and well-being in their LGBT children in young adulthood.

Dave Reynolds, MPH, CPH is Senior Public Policy and Research Manager at The Trevor Project, a national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. He will describe evidence-based practices related to media coverage of suicides and public health campaigns to prevent suicide. Using specific examples related to LGBTQ youth, he will explain how members of the media, suicide prevention professionals, and advocates can adhere to safe and effective messaging standards when communicating about suicide prevention and the LGBTQ community.

Webinar Presentation Slides

Webinar Recording

Advancing Suicide Prevention Practice in the Emergency Department Setting

Suicide attempts make up an increasing proportion of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations, and the care received during and subsequent to an ED visit by persons at risk for suicide can have long-term consequences—either good or bad. This webinar presents a cross-section of promising and evidence-based strategies for preventing suicide among patients visiting the ED, including continuity of care. Four speakers representing private health system, academic hospital, and VA health care settings will provide information about their programs and lessons learned. This presentation will be interactive, with opportunities to ask questions.

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:

  • Describe promising and evidence-based suicide prevention strategies for the ED setting including continuity of care.
  • Understand opportunities and challenges for implementing suicide prevention practices in the ED setting.
  • Access the “Is Your Patient Suicidal?” Poster and Triage Guide and other resources for the ED setting.

Additional resource to be referenced during the webinar:

Event Presenter(s)

Glenn W. Currier, MD, MPH, Chief of Medical Affairs, VISN2 Center of Excellence, Canandaigua NY VA Medical Center; Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center 
Dr. Currier is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and of Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, NY, USA. Dr. Currier received his bachelor’s degree in economics, and was a research associate at the Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associated prior to entering medical school. He received his medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University, where he specialized in health services research. Dr. Currier’s residency training in psychiatry and internal medicine was also at Yale.

Dr Currier is past president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry. He is author or co-author of numerous publications focused primarily on health services research and treatment practices in emergency settings.

Dr Currier recently completed an NIMH funded K-23 career development award consisting of a randomised controlled clinical trial of a services intervention to test the use of mobile crisis teams to link discharged emergency department patients into ongoing ambulatory care. Dr. Currier’s current research includes a conjoint suicide surveillance project in emergency departments at Rochester, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. He is also a principal investigator on a multi-site trail of a safety planning intervention in nine VA emergency departments. Dr. Currier is a past member of the Training & Standards Subcommittee of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Patricia Alexander, PhD, Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers (MIRECC) Investigator, Rocky Mountain Region, Veterans Administration, Denver, Colorado
Patricia Alexander, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical/research psychologist with the VISN 19 MIRECC. As a clinician, she is the Acute Services Coordinator for the Suicide Assessment and Follow-Up Engagement: Veteran Emergency Treatment (SAFE VET) Clinical Demonstration Project, a member of the VISN 19 MIRECC outpatient/inpatient suicide consultation service, and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Alexander is a former active duty Air Force officer with 25 years of clinical and teaching experience in the areas of combat-related stress and post traumatic stress disorder. Her primary research interests are in the areas of shame, guilt and attachment issues and the role they play in complex PTSD and suicidality.

Denise Foster, RN, MSN, Emergency Department Director, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
Denise Foster joined Oregon Health & Science University as Emergency Department Director in 2009 and has quickly charted a course to the future of the E.D. that sees growing process and performance improvements, as well as greater employee and patient satisfaction. All this has been achieved while seeing a substantial growth in the number of patients that are seen in the ED.

Foster is extraordinarily dedicated to the quality of care for all patients. Since her arrival at OHSU, she has been a champion for at risk patients. She worked with a consulting psychiatric specialist to develop and improve standards of care for this patient population. Foster’s work has also focused on nurse initiated orders to improve throughput and patient care. She participates in the Robert Wood Johnson Aligning Forces for Quality ED Throughput Project.

Foster is a member of the Coordinating Committee and co-chair of the Hospital Staffing Committee and serves on the Department’s service Excellence Committee. She also represents the hospital for the Oregon Nurse Staffing Collaborative (a joint effort of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems).
Prior to coming to OHSU, Foster was Emergency Dept. Manager at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego. Foster earned her BSN in Nursing from California State University in 2000, and her Master’s in Nursing Leadership and Education in 2008. She was recognized for her excellence in education when admitted as a member of the honor society of nursing, Sigma Theta Tau.

Gary Parker, PhD, MS, BSN, Manager of Research Services, Mercy Health Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Gary Parker is Manager of Research Services for Mercy Health Center, a hospital operated by the Mercy Health System of Oklahoma. Mr. Parker coordinates research projects for Mercy system organizations which translate into new policies, protocols, and improved patient outcomes. Research projects and studies range from comparisons of nurse attitudes in China and the United States concerning the care of dying patients, to nurse-driven SBIRT programs in the emergency department (ED).

For the last seven years, Mr. Parker has become involved in suicide prevention and led a number of projects aiming to address suicide prevention in health care. Some have been in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and target school sports physicals, community EDs, and primary care clinics. Mr. Parker studied at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University and is an active member of the Oklahoma Nurses Association (ONA). His work with colleagues and Mercy Health Center research projects earned the ONA Excellence and Cherokee Inspiration awards. Mr. Parker has four children and enjoys travel.

Webinar Presentation Slides

Webinar Recording

Responding After a Suicide: Best Practices for Schools

Schools that experience a suicide in their communities are often uncertain about how to respond and can benefit from others with expertise in this area. State and local organizations contacted by schools in crisis can assist by providing information about best practices and practical resources. This webinar presents safe and effective ways in which schools, and the organizations working with them, can respond following a suicide. Three speakers representing national and school-based perspectives will discuss relevant research, best practices and key resources, including a new online toolkit for schools.  They will be joined by discussants describing their coordinated response to one school’s suicide crisis. The webinar format will be interactive, with opportunities for participants to ask questions.

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:

  • Describe best practices and key resources for responding to a suicide in the school community.
  • Understand how state and local organizations can help schools in crisis following a suicide.
  • Access After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools and other related resources.

Additional resources to be referenced during the webinar:

Event Presenter(s)

Scott Poland, Ed.D, is an internationally recognized expert on school crisis, youth violence, suicide intervention, self injury, school safety, threat assessment, parenting and the delivery of psychological services in schools. He is currently an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dr. Poland is widely considered a pioneer in school suicide prevention having authored one of the most respected works on the subject in his 1989 book entitled, Suicide Intervention in the Schools. He is currently the co-director of a three year federal grant for suicide prevention at N.S.U. He has lectured and written extensively on these subjects including four books and numerous Best Practices chapters and his writings have been translated into several languages. He served on the President’s Roundtable on Youth Violence and has testified about the needs of children before the U. S. Congress on four occasions. Dr. Poland is a founding member of the National Emergency Assistance Team for the National Association of School Psychologists and currently serves as the Prevention Director for the American Association of Suicidology.

Joanne Harpel, J.D., M.Phil, the survivor of her brother’s suicide, joined the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2002 as its first-ever Director of Survivor Initiatives. Ms. Harpel is responsible for the full spectrum of AFSP’s initiatives relating to the aftermath of suicide, including International Survivors of Suicide Day, the Support Group Facilitator Training Program, and the Survivor Outreach Program. A frequent media spokesperson and lecturer throughout the country, she also oversees AFSP’s public affairs efforts, including constituency relations, media relations, communications, and social media.

Richard Lieberman, Ma, LEP, NCSP has coordinated Suicide Prevention Services for Los Angeles Unified School District for the past 25 years. He is a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. Mr. Lieberman is co-author of School Crisis Prevention and Intervention: the PREPaRE Model and numerous book chapters and articles on youth suicide prevention, crisis intervention and responding to self injurious students in the schools. He has co-written and appeared in numerous violence and suicide prevention videos including an HBO documentary and serves on national crisis teams, sent on behalf of the US Department of Education, to assist many communities in the aftermath of youth suicide clusters and school violence.

Webinar Presentation Slides

Webinar Recording

Suicide Narratives in the News Media: What Effect Might They Have and What Can We Do?

The news media do more than report facts, they tell stories about events and people. These narratives can influence public perceptions about issues, including their causes and appropriate solutions. For example, extensive news coverage of suicides among LGBT youth, military service members, and individuals affected by the U.S. economic crisis has created a basic storyline or narrative about how and why suicide happens in each of these groups. While there is no direct research linking suicide narratives to attempted or completed suicide, the existing literature suggests the potential for this type of coverage to have negative effects on vulnerable individuals. This webinar will define the concept of media narratives, summarize relevant research and theory, and suggest approaches for influencing these narratives.

Objectives:
Participants will be able to:

  • Define and give recent examples of suicide narratives in the news media.
  • Describe key findings from research and theory about the potential effects of these narratives on suicide risk.
  • Describe specific actions they can take to influence suicide narratives.

Additional Resources:

Event Presenter(s)

Madelyn Gould, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a Professor in Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia University; a Research Scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute; and Deputy Director of Research Training Program in Child Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. Her long-standing research interests include the epidemiology of youth suicide, as well as the evaluation of youth suicide prevention interventions. Dr. Gould has received numerous federally funded grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIMH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for studies examining risk factors for teenage suicide, various aspects of cluster suicides, the impact of the media on suicide, the effect of a peer’s suicide on fellow students, suicide postvention programs in schools, the effect of youth suicide screening programs, the utility of telephone crisis services. She also received a W.T. Grant Faculty Scholar’s Award to examine psychosocial risk factors for teenage suicide and a Distinguished Investigator Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to investigate the role of the media in the initiation of suicide clusters. Her participation in numerous state and national government commissions include the 1978 President’s Commission on Mental Health and the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Task Force on Youth Suicide in 1989. In addition, she authored the chapter on youth suicide prevention for the Surgeon General’s 1999 National Suicide Prevention Strategy, and served as a leadership consultant for the Surgeon General’s Leadership Working Group for the National Suicide Prevention Strategy. Dr. Gould was also a founding member of the New York State Suicide Prevention Council and has been actively engaged in the development of the suicide prevention plan for New York State. She contributed to the Center for Disease Control’s community response plan for suicide clusters (1988) and recommendations to optimize media reporting of suicide (1994), was a member of an international workgroup, sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which updated these media recommendations in 2001, and most recently, participated in the workgroup that developed the recommendations for new media’s safe reporting of suicide. The recipient of the Shneidman Award for Research from the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) in 1991, the New York State Office of Mental Health Research Award in 2002, and the 2006 American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Research Award, Dr. Gould has a strong commitment to applying her research to program and policy development.

Ken Norton, LICSW serves as the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New Hampshire (NAMI NH). He led the development of the Connect training program for prevention, intervention and postvention, which is listed in the SPRC/AFSP Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention. Ken was instrumental in the passage of legislation which established a state Suicide Prevention Council. As a member of that council, he participated in the revision of the New Hampshire State Suicide Prevention Plan. Ken has served on numerous committees and workgroups focused on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention for both civilian and military populations. He serves on the steering committee of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. He was also active in the recent revision of the media recommendations for reporting on suicide. The NH Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers named Ken their “Social Worker of the Year” for 2009. Ken has been personally impacted by suicide and this fuels his passion for suicide prevention efforts.

Linda Langford, Sc.D. has been an associate Center director at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) since 1998. She has served as an Evaluation Scientist with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center since 2006, offering training and expert consultation on an array of prevention issues including communications, evaluation, strategic planning, and translating research to practice. Dr. Langford has conducted pre-conference trainings on creating and implementing effective communications campaigns at the last three American Association of Suicidology meetings. She provided an April 2009 briefing on safe and effective suicide prevention messaging and stigma reduction to the Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces, co-presented a plenary session about science-based strategic communications at the 2011 DOD/VA Annual Suicide Prevention Conference, and currently serves as a Subject Matter Expert on a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs national stigma reduction campaign led by Reingold, Inc. From 2006 to 2010, she co-directed the Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention. She also has been an Associate Center Director for the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention since 1998, managing the Center’s evaluation projects for four years and since 2002 directing the Center’s violence prevention initiatives. From 2002 to 2005, she was Principal Investigator for the NIAAA-funded “SNAPPY” project, a pilot evaluation study of a social norms marketing communications campaign. From 1998 to 2005, she was an Assistant Clinical Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, teaching a core course in strategic planning for health behavior change in the health communications program.

Webinar Presentation Slides

Webinar Recording