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Safety Planning: A Suicide and Crisis Deescalation Training

9/29/2023

Click below for links to items discussed in this recorded training:
1. Demographics
2. Intro Survey
3. Link to training presentation
4. Recording of today’s presentation
5. Find Your Anchor
6. Please Stay
7. R U Ok?

How to Help a Friend card

8. Safety Planning
9. Order digital or paper safety plans
10. Order a Care Kit or Find Your Anchor Box
11. Additional resources to continue this conversation:
1. Creating a Healthier Life
2. A Journey Towards Health and Hope
3. Navigating a Crisis
12. Online & on-demand trainings
13. Tahoe Lifeline training
1. Check out CAMS-care training if you work directly in mental health care
14. Evaluation

What words come to mind when you think of suicide?
Below is a Wordle that was created from the words our audience supplied.

Maybe someday when we think of the work suicide things won't feel so dark. Maybe the words that will come to mind will be: hope, help, support, care, rare, and so on...that is our mission!

On a scale of 1-5, how knowledgeable do you feel on the topic of suicide?
The average for 23 participant responses was 3.5.

If you felt more knowledgeable our hats are off to you! Thank you for the hard work that you’ve done to become so knowledgable!
If you ranked that you felt less knowledgeable, we invite you to join into future conversations and engage in future training opportunities. Thank you for being here today!

Responses to Survey Questions:

What to say and not to say as a supporter?
How to support supporters who have lost others to suicide?
- Postvention (support after a death by suicide) is some of the most important suicide prevention that we can do. Talk to the survivor of loss and be direct. Share stories about the person they lost. Say that persons name out loud, the grieving miss hearing their loved ones name. Remember to check in and help the grieving understand that suicide grief is complex. Linked here are additional resources to review and share.
What age is too young to start talking about suicide?
- If someone needs to talk about suicide, there is no age that is too young. QPR training is recommended for audiences 12 and above depending on the needs of the group or individual. Suicide prevention training and conversations can be designed to meet the needs of individuals younger than 12 to meet their specific needs. If a child has been impacted by suicide, please don't be afraid to talk about it directly and not in euphemisms or in abstract. Reach out for more discussion if there is a specific situation in mind.
- Talking to Kids about Suicide
- Care Kit for grieving families with young children
How to best support young people with suicidal ideation?
- One of the best therapeutic supports for individuals with thoughts of suicide is CAMS-care. Helping someone who is struggling could loook like helping them establish care with a therapist who is trained in this therapeutic treatment or other
- For anyone with suicidal ideation, one of the best supports is maintaining or building a trusting relationship. Nonjudmental and empathetic listening. Not trying to fix problems, but helping empower them to overcome obstacles and being by their side while they work to do that.
- The Trevor Project is an amazing resource for young people struggling with LGBTQ+ issues.
- With youth, their understanding of time is very different from adults, as are hormones and brain development which impacts impulsiveness. Helping them to understand that situations will change as time goes on, that they will have the ability to change their circumstances in their future and that for some they might have to find ways to hold on. This should not be a passive and dismissive, like get over it, or tomorrow is a new day. See image below.

How do we find the balance between working to prevent suicide while not feeling the guilt when suicide prevention methods are not successful?
- What has helped me personally has been Dr. Thomas Joiner's research, the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide
- Compassion for yourself and for them. Check out Creating a Healthier Life
When is suicidal ideation low risk and when does it turn into more of a concern?
- To learn more about suicidal ideation, check out the Columbia Screener or take an ASIST training. Between these two tools, you can learn how to identify what kind of risk a person is
Just emphasizing again that you do not need to be a professional to help someone complete a safety plan.
- Thank you for that note. We agree!
How to help someone who does not have access to many resources?
- Talking. Checking in. Relationship building.
- Sharing your own personal struggles if/when appropriate.
- Learning more about their needs and working with them to find free/low cost resources that they do have access to.
- For those struggling with a potential mental illness, there can be a lot of relief in finding a diagnosis, "name it to tame it," might be a factor for this person. A diagnosis of a mental illness can also help open doors to resources if they are needed.
- Reaching out 211 & community collaboratives to learn more about the resources available can be helpful.

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