Suicide Prevention
Constituents of the NEOMED Coordinating Centers of Excellence – the Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (BeST) Center, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence and the Ohio Program for Campus Safety & Mental Health – regularly interact with individuals at risk for suicide – and can and do help to reduce suicide risk in communities throughout Ohio. Some of the suicide prevention resources provided by the Coordinating Centers of Excellence are:
Coordinating CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
Coordinating Centers of Excellence 2020 Suicide Prevention Month webinar, “A Suicide Prevention Strategy: Facilitating Critical Connections During Times of Transitions,” discusses programs provided through the coordinating centers that help to reduce the risk of suicide during high-risk transitions, including transitions from inpatient to outpatient psychiatric care, from jail/prison to community, from high school to college and others.
PowerPoint slides: A Suicide Prevention Strategy Facilitating Critical Connections During Times of Transitions
Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (beST) Center
Approximately 5 to 10 percent of people with schizophrenia will die by suicide. The Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (BeST) Center offers resources to reduce this risk and help people with schizophrenia achieve their fullest level of recovery.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis
The BeST Center offers expert training and consultation in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis (CBT-p), a person-centered, recovery-oriented, collaborative, structured and evidence-based approach for addressing psychotic illness symptoms and promoting mental health. The BeST Center offers training and consultation in CBT-p interventions that individual practitioners and teams can incorporate into clinical care. Some specific CBT-p resources for suicide prevention include:
- Cognitive Behavioral Interventions to Reduce Suicide Behavior A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis
- Cognitive-Behavioural-Suicide-Prevention-for-Male-Prisoners-a-pilot-randomized-controlled-trial Pratt
- The Cognitive Behavioral Prevention of Suicide in Psychosis A Clinical Trial
- Cognitive Behavioural Prevention of Suicide in Psychosis: A Treatment Manual
For more information, please contact the BeST Center’s Dr. Harry Sivec, senior managing consultant and trainer, at hsivec@neomed.edu or Dr. Valerie Kreider, senior consultant and trainer, at vkreider@neomed.edu.
FIRST Coordinated Specialty Care for First Episode Psychosis
Suicide risk in early psychosis is highest during emerging psychosis; immediately prior to hospitalization and immediately following discharge; several months following symptom remission; and after an initial relapse:
- Suicidality Before and in the Early Phases of First Episode Psychosis
- Suicidal Behaviour and Mortality in First Episode Psychosis – the OPUS Trial
- Suicidal Behaviour in First-Episode Non-Affective Psychosis Specific Risk Periods and Stage-Related Factors
- Suicide Risk in First Episode Psychosis A Selective Review of Current Literature
- The Changing Characteristics of African American Suicides
The Best Practices in Schizophrenia Treatment (BeST) Center provides training, consultation and other assistance to 13 affiliated FIRST Coordinated Specialty Care for First Episode Psychosis programs that offer team-based, integrated care to individuals experiencing an initial episode of psychotic illness and their friends and families. The FIRST Individual Resiliency Trainer manual includes an extensive module with clinical guidelines and client handouts for addressing suicide risk. Please contact BeST Center FIRST Consultant and Trainers Crystal N. Dunivant, MSW, LSW, at cdunivant@neomed.edu or Nick Dunlap, LPCC, at ndunlap@neomed.edu for more information.
Loved Ones Involved in a Network of Care (LINC)
Individuals leaving inpatient psychiatric care have a 200 times greater risk of suicide in the first month transitioning to outpatient care than those in the general population (National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, Best Practices in Care Transitions). The BeST Center’s LINC program trains inpatient and outpatient mental health providers to engage friends and family members in assisting loved ones who are making transitions from inpatient to outpatient psychiatric care.
It Is Time to Talk About It A Family Guide for Youth Suicide Prevention*
To learn more, please contact Dr. Danelle Hupp, BeST Center senior consultant and trainer for family-based services, at dhupp@neomed.edu.
NEOMED Clozapine Assistance Service
Risk for suicide falls dramatically when individuals with schizophrenia are treated with clozapine. Among all the medications available that can be prescribed for schizophrenia, only one – clozapine – has been recognized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an effective suicide-prevention medication. This brief video provides more information about how this uniquely effective medication for reducing suicide risk for people with schizophrenia. The NEOMED Clozapine Assistance Service offers free clinical consultation, resources and training for prescribing clinicians.
- For the schedule and registration links for live, virtual training, Clozapine: When and How to Safely Prescribe This Uniquely Effective Medication, please click here.
- To download Clozapine Facts for Patients, Their Families and the Clinicians Who Care for Them, please click here*.
- For free clinical consultation, call BeST Center Medical Director Dr. Erik Messamore at 330.325.6848 or email clozapine@neomed.edu.
Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence
Law enforcement officers often get called to scenes that are not described as suicidal crises but rather as conflicts, disturbances or domestic violence. Officers need to determine when a situation includes someone who is suicidal. Individuals who leave inpatient psychiatric care are at 200 times greater risk for suicide than the general population during the first month following discharge, and individuals transitioning from jail or prison to the community are at significantly increased risk of death, including from suicide. While the acute phase of schizophrenia represents a high risk for suicide, most suicides among individuals with schizophrenia actually take place following remission of psychotic symptoms in the early recovery phase. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence (CJ CCoE) offers important resources to help prevent suicide:
Crisis Intervention Team
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training is readily available to law enforcement officers in Ohio (barring cancellations due to the pandemic) and includes building suicide prevention and intervention skills. For the statewide CIT training schedule, please click here.
The CIT Support and Expansion Project has funding available for CIT programs to support CIT core training and advanced, refresher, or companion training, as well as data collection, cross-system information sharing, policy development, officer and cross-systems partners recognition, community awareness strategies and more. Please e-mail Haley Farver, MPA, program coordinator, at hfarver@neomed.edu for more information.
Suicide by Cop
One of the last things any officer wants is an encounter that results in an officer-involved shooting or some other form of injurious or deadly force. This nightmare can be compounded when it involves a situation where an individual, who is suicidal, compels an officer to take his or her life, often referred to as “suicide by cop” (SBC). These situations can be personally and professionally devastating. The hope is that SBC situations can be resolved safely. There are many aspects to policing that officers need to be informed about and prepared to handle on a minute’s notice, and this is no exception. To better understand and prepare for this unfortunate phenomenon that still occurs regularly today, please review Suicide by Cop by Terry Kukor, Ph.D., and Shannon Porter. This comprehensive training was presented at the 2013 Crisis Intervention Team Advanced Training Conference.
Sequential Intercept Mapping
Sequential Intercept Mapping is a cross-system approach to strengthening local strategies to implement core services that will address behavioral health, criminogenic, and social factors for justice-involved persons with mental illness. The goals are to aid Ohio counties in developing effective systems of care that bridge criminal justice and mental health services from community-based services through reentry from institutions and to minimize criminal justice involvement for persons with mental illness. To learn more about Sequential Intercept Mapping workshops, please click here.
Ohio Program for Campus Safety & Mental Health
Campus mental health is a serious concern and suicide remains the second leading cause of death for youth and young adults 10-24 years of age, and the prevalence of suicidal thoughts is higher among young adults 18-29 years old than any other age group.
The Ohio Program for Campus Safety & Mental Health (OPCSMH) promotes a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention and mental health awareness to institutions of higher education and community organizations to increase access to practical, evidence-based interventions for identifying those at risk for suicide and other mental health concerns and engage them in treatment. To join the OPCSMH listserv to learn about upcoming webinars and other opportunities, please email opcsmh@neomed.edu.
webinars
The Role of Ohio College Campuses in Implementing The Suicide Prevention Plan for Ohio
Presenters: Tony Coder and Austin Lucas, Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation
Nov. 17, 2020, 11:30 a.m. ET
View presentation
Preparing our Students, Faculty and Staff with Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR)
Presenter: Jessica Stevens, MSW, Mental Health & Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties
View presentation
Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)
Presenter: Amber Miracle, LCSW, Department of the Army
View presentation
Ohio Program for Campus Safety & Mental Health Suicide Prevention Resources Page
Integrated Care at NEOMED (IC@N) Project ECHO
Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT)
Presenter: Douglas Smith, M.D., DFAPA
View presentation
Zero Suicide in Healthcare
Presenter: Douglas Smith, M.D., DFAPA
CONTACT
Ruth Simera, M.Ed., LSW
Executive Director
Phone: 330.325.6670
Email: rsimera@neomed.edu
