Ready To Respond: Course on Suicide Awareness Focuses on Treatment, Support, and Resources
Sessions are now available on demand for free
November 3, 2025
Every year, suicide claims almost 50,000 lives in the United States—a stark reminder that prevention efforts are as vital as ever. Even with training and awareness, clinicians continue to face the challenges of addressing one of the most complex issues in mental health.
On October 24, 2025, Deconstructing Stigma offered this year’s free virtual course for health care professionals, called Ready To Respond: Managing and Treating Suicide Risk.
“Our annual course on suicide prevention has really become something special,” says Scott J. O’Brien, director of Education Outreach at McLean Hospital and co-founder of Deconstructing Stigma. “It’s not just about training mental health professionals—it’s about giving everyone, from health care providers to families, the tools and confidence to talk about suicide in a caring, informed way. That’s how we break down fear and start to eliminate stigma.”
During the course, which is now available to watch for free on demand, experts from McLean and partner organizations discuss best practices for recognizing suicidal behavior, identifying risk factors, and talking about suicide in a helpful, non-stigmatizing way. Over 3,000 participants from around the globe attended the event.
“We’re always so inspired by the people who join us—from all over the world and from so many different professions,” O’Brien shares. “Seeing that shared commitment to understanding and prevention reminds us why this work matters so much. It’s incredibly moving and gives us so much hope.”
Access the Course for FREE!
Designed to teach practical, hands-on strategies to manage suicide risk in the clinic, the workplace, and at home, our expert instructors guide you through the best practices for assessing and treating suicidality, equipping you with the tools you need to make a difference right away.
The course is available to watch at any time for free.
Recognizing Warning Signs and Taking Action
In the course’s opening session, Practical Approaches to Suicidality and Safety Planning, Mark Longsjo, LICSW, and Curtis Wittmann, MD, describe risk factors related to suicide, including mental health conditions and personal crises. The experts emphasize that the circumstances surrounding a suicidal person are unique.
“It’s always about the person in front of us and their individual experiences,” Wittmann says.
He and Longsjo detail the steps of safety planning with patients and illustrate how such planning is a collaborative process built on trust.
“It’s very important not to jump into a conversation and immediately ask, ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’” Longsjo points out. “It’s very important to start off a conversation with, ‘How have you been feeling?’”
Navigating Difficult Conversations
Doreen Marshall, PhD, and Roger Pottanat, MD, expand on how to have conversations about suicide. In their session, Hard To Ask, Hard To Hear: What Gets in the Way of Suicide Assessment, the experts explain how professionals are most effective when they lean into their own discomfort.
Marshall describes how many clinicians bring their own feelings into such conversations, “whether it’s thoughts about … death in general, or more specifically, about what it means to be in emotional pain or to feel disconnected from life.”
Pottanat states how clinicians can feel reassured in knowing they have resources and steps to follow.
“There’s a great network of help that is available,” he says. “Even if you’re a clinician, there’s always going to be someone that you can reach out to for more guidance and help.”
Supporting Older Adults
In the course’s third session, Alice B. Uflacker speaks of suicide in a population often overlooked: our elders. In Silent Struggles: Understanding and Preventing Suicide in Older Adults, Uflacker illuminates unique challenges faced by older adults, such as accumulating losses, changing mobility, and illness.
Uflacker emphasizes how fostering human connection and questioning cultural norms around seeking care is especially important for this group.
She encourages friends and family to serve as liaisons, saying, “It’s helpful to partner with your loved one and their primary care [doctor] to help screen, find red flags, and help break the stigma.”
Transforming Loss Into Purpose
To conclude the course, Ann Irr Dagle shares her experience as a suicide loss survivor. In 2011, Dagle lost her son Brian to suicide. She describes the death of her loving, charismatic son as “a tsunami that took over our friends, our family, and our community.”
Dagle describes her grief, her healing, and how she uses her lived experience as a suicide loss survivor to educate and support others. She and her family established the Brian Dagle Foundation, whose mission is to help adults on their grief journey and educate the community on mental health and suicide awareness.
“Just because Brian died … our story doesn’t end,” Dagle says. “I think that’s why I like to tell that story: I’ve always thought, if I can make a difference in one person’s life, then it’s worth telling.”
By integrating practical guidance with lived experience, this course emphasizes that effective, evidence-based suicide prevention is deeply human.
