Suicide Prevention Education

Current Research

The SSW’s Simmons Suicide Prevention Education Initiative (SSPEI) has received a fourth grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to continue research in suicide prevention. The project will involve interviews with personnel at agencies specializing in work with immigrants and homeless youth to help articulate and conceptualize what is known about risk factors, resilience, assessment, and ongoing work with these groups. The project team includes Ruth Dean, principal investigator; Hugo Kamya, coprincipal investigator.

Simmons Suicide Prevention Education Initiative

Three Years and Still Going Strong: A Report

In 2006 Simmons School of Social Work was one of several schools approached by the Suicide Prevention Program of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) for a proposal for a planning grant to enhance suicide prevention education. Simons was awarded a planning grant and in 2007 formed a committee, the Simmons Suicide Prevention Education Initiative (SSPEI) to plan and organize the work at Simmons. Using a strategic planning process, seven objectives were authorized and the committee identified activities to support each objective. Key faculty members in charge of programs or sequences were involved in the process.

The proposed changes were implemented during the 2007-2008 academic year. We conducted surveys of faculty, students and field personnel to determine specific needs regarding education for dealing with clients at risk of suicide. These surveys confirmed that teaching about suicide was minimal. As a result the SSPEI initiative developed a rich collection of resources which included journal articles and audio/visual material and distributed this to faculty according to particular teaching needs and interests.

In addition to strengthening the syllabi in particular courses, the SSPEI also arranged for the Research sequence chair to include suicide prevention literature in the Tech Comps which all students entering the program must take. Students responded to this material through an electronic discussion list and considerable interest in the topic was generated. This was followed up with discussions in courses across the curriculum.

A series of conferences were held to provide information regarding the assessment and treatment of at risk populations for suicide. These included workshops led by two committee members at the Simmons Alumni Symposium, a NECON presentation to field supervisors and a course in the Simmons Continuing Education Program.

An additional grant from MDPH enabled Simmons to hold a large conference on June 14th entitled ?Education for Suicide Prevention: Places, Faces and the Practice Experience.? Over 100 attendance exceeded the seating limits of the large conference room and feedback from this and previous conferences indicated that attendees were highly satisfied with the meeting. Topics included: responding to a community; GBLT youth at risk; urban youth in neighborhoods with high levels of violence and drugs; suicide prevention with the elderly; and suicidality in returning veterans. There was coverage by the Boston Globe.

Following the successful efforts during 2007-2008, a fourth grant was obtained to continue the work of the SSPEI in 2008-2009. This year we focused on two unique populations known to be at risk for suicide; homeless youth and recent immigrants. Partner agencies were identified, agency personnel working with the populations being studied were interviewed and we are currently in the process of analyzing and preparing to write about the results of these interviews. We believe that this work will add a new dimension to our understanding of cultural competence with particular populations.

Events

Our first event was the conference: EDUCATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION: PLACES, FACES, AND THE PRACTICE EXPERIENCE WORK WITH COMMUNITIES, VULNERABLE GROUPS, INDIVIDUALS held on Saturday, June 14, 2008.

The conference was very well attended and received coverage in the Boston Globe. To view the brochure from this conference, click here.

Resources

This collection of resources was compiled by the members of the Simmons Suicide Prevention Education Initiative to aid Social Workers in finding resources and in training agencies specifically dealing with suicide prevention.

Suicide Prevention Resources