Programs

suicideCare Calendar of Events


Seminars

CAD Canada (English)


  • May 4, 2012: Oakville, ON (Holiday Inn Oakville Centre) - Facilitator: Wallis Balog - (OPEN) - request registration at info@lifelineworkshops.com
  • June 5 & 6, 2012: Niagara, ON - Facilitator: Geoffrey Reekie - (CLOSED)

USA


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There is a need for suicideCare…

There is a strong body of evidence asserting that caregiving disciplines and professions continue to prepare caregivers who are neither comfortable nor confident in working with persons at risk of suicide. In a community where suicide first-aid is taught using ASIST, about ten percent of ASIST participants express an interest in learning more about suicideCare.

Only a few programs address the upgrading of caregivers’ suicide-specific clinical competencies with persons at risk, beyond crisis responding1.  Programs such as CBT for suicidal persons, solutions-focused therapy and Linehan’s DBT are highly targeted to specific therapeutic orientations or to specific groups of at risk persons.  In addition to suicideCare, there are currently three, widely available programs in the United States that address the broader need. All focus on caregivers at somewhat the same level of participant experience and expertise. They are David Jobes - CAMS, the SPRC program - Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR) and Recognizing and Responding to Suicide Risk (RRSR), operated by AAS. Each of these programs has an overlap with ASIST but only AMSR is a one-day presentation. Needless to say, LW thinks that suicideCare has a deeper conceptual and theoretical base and is more directly relevant to all and any person(s) at risk.  There are also a number of excellent textbooks both recent and classic that address helping suicidal persons and some of these authors will travel to elaborate on their approach.  Each of these learning experiences has merits and failings.

 

1Most of this helping work is seen to involve management or treatment of the instrumental problems or interpersonal conflicts that have precipitated a suicidal episode. There are only a very small number of caregivers who engage in the ongoing care of persons at risk of suicide and do this independently of dealing with underlying interpersonal, intrapersonal or mental disorder issues.


Who should attend suicideCare?

Participants should have some skill base in clinical helping, and suicideCare encourages and respects the diversity of all clinical helping approaches. We also require attendees to have participated in an ASIST training workshop as the seminar builds directly on that participation.