Experts Share Effective Approaches to Suicide Prevention and Support
October 9, 2024
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and suicide rates have been increasing since 2000.
To address this public health crisis, McLean Hospital held its 5th annual suicide prevention course, Heroes of Hope: Championing Suicide Prevention Together.
Experts covered the importance of suicide prevention and provided strategies to identify warning signs. They also discussed the need for postvention: an effective and caring community response after a suicide death.
The Heroes of Hope course consisted of four discussions designed for clinicians, educators, family, friends, and anyone interested in learning more about this important topic.
Two thousand people from around the globe attended the free live event, which is now available to watch on demand. Attendees were encouraged to share their questions, which the experts answered as part of the discussion.
“The suicide epidemic is a pressing global issue—one that truly affects everyone,” says Scott J. O’Brien, director of Education Outreach at McLean.
“While many mental health conditions require the support of a health care professional, we all play a role in suicide prevention. A friend, neighbor, colleague, or teacher may be the one to flag warning signs or help point someone who is struggling toward a source of hope or help,” he continues.
“This course really aims at spreading knowledge about suicide and suicide prevention to our worldwide audience. The more we can destigmatize the topic, the more people we can help.”
Understanding and Addressing Suicidality
In the course’s first session, Suicidality: Let’s Talk About It, Yeates Conwell, MD, and Anna Precht, PsyD, address how challenging it can be for people to broach the subject of suicide.
The experts address common misconceptions, including the belief that asking someone if they are suicidal will put the idea into their minds.
“Not only will talking about it not make somebody suicidal, it’s the opposite,” Conwell says. “The ability to talk about it can be so helpful to people.”
Conwell and Precht provide specific techniques for having such conversations and emphasize how sitting with another person through their pain in itself is healing.
In the second part of their discussion, Suicide: Helping Someone Who Is Struggling, Conwell and Precht outline approaches people can take when supporting someone through suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and how such approaches differ according to the situation—whether it involves having a direct and open conversation, enlisting the support of others, or calling 911.
The experts guide viewers on how to recognize the severity of a situation and how to respond accordingly.
Watch the Course Now!
The Heroes of Hope: Suicide Prevention Course is available on demand. Watch now—it’s FREE!
Treatment and Postvention Strategies
In the course’s third discussion, Effective Treatment for Suicidality, Jill Nowak, MSW, LICSW, and DeJuan White, MD, discuss various treatments for suicidality and how these interventions work.
Nowak and White point out that suicide itself is not a mental health diagnosis but is rather a symptom of different mental health conditions, including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and PTSD.
The experts review treatments such as dialectical behavior therapy, which at its core is geared toward helping someone create a life worth living. They describe how clinicians employ talk therapy and medication to treat specific mental health disorders and the suicidal thoughts and behaviors that can be part of the conditions.
In the course’s fourth and final discussion, Responding to Suicide: The Importance of Postvention, Marie Clouqueur, LICSW, and Kenneth Norton, LICSW, discuss the concept of postvention: responding to a suicide death in a way that supports the loved ones and the community left behind.
The experts explain how postvention works at the organizational and individual levels. Suicide postvention involves responsible language, appropriate media coverage, well-organized outreach, and ongoing support to those who have lost a loved one to suicide.
Norton says one of the developments he is most hopeful about is the creation of the 988 suicide crisis line for people to get help, which also includes postvention assistance.
“Most of those [calls] are answered at the local level, and people get connected with local resources,” he says. “I would urge people that have lost a loved one to suicide to consider connecting with other loss survivors.”
He adds, “I think that we have come a long way in the last couple of decades in acknowledging the importance of talking about suicide death and supporting all people who have been impacted by a suicide death.”
Want continuing medical education credits/certificate of completion for this course? Sign up now!
