Suicide Safety In Schools, a mental health education program, provides crisis management and suicide safety training to the Onondaga County school communities, including students, parents, teaching staff and district administration in evidence-based practices, protocols and trainings.

Trainings include Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Question. Persuade. Refer. (QPR), More than Sad, It’s Real: Teens and Mental Health, Suicide Safety in Schools, School Crisis Team Training and Talk Saves Lives.

This program can also provide large-scale awareness activities to promote Suicide Safety In Schools and Mental Health awareness.

What

There are several Suicide Safety in Schools and Mental Health trainings available.

School Staff (Administration, Teachers, Support Staff):

The suicide prevention programs listed below comply with NYS requirements for teacher education training.

Suicide Safety for Teachers and School Staff
This 45-minute training is designed to meet the basic needs of school administration, faculty, and staff. Emphasis is on recognizing warning signs, clarifying the referral process in place at school, and making a warm handoff.
Creating Suicide Safety in School

This full day (six hours) workshop is designed to assist school administrators, school-based mental health and health professionals, school safety staff, and school counselors with planning suicide prevention activities. Sometimes board members, teachers, and parents attend; it is ideal to include members of the school community who are vested in assessing current prevention and response readiness and providing recommendations for improvements. Implementation teams come together to spend the day learning about suicide and best practices in prevention. Small and large group discussions facilitate the development of a customized action plan.
Helping Students at Risk for Suicide
This 6-hour professional development workshop for school pupil services professionals and school-based mental health professionals around the work of intervention to keep a student at risk for suicide safe. This training builds on from the Suicide Safety for Teachers and School Staff by training the counseling and mental health staff in proper suicide assessments, safety planning, parental notification, and referral.
School Crisis Team Training: Building the Response to Traumatic Death and Suicide
This training provides eight brief interacting training sessions designed to be delivered to building level and district level crisis teams over time. The sessions are founded in crisis and grief theory and are designed to spark discussion, allow teams to practice postvention principles and plan responses to situations that include complex variables.
More Than Sad: Suicide Prevention Education for Teachers and Other School Personnel
This training is a 120-minute program that teaches educators to recognize signs of mental health distress in students and refer them for help.

Students:

More Than Sad: Teen Depression
This training is a 75-minute program that teaches teens to recognize the signs of depression in themselves and others; challenges existing stigma surrounding depression; and demystifies the treatment process. This program focuses on high school students.
Gizmo’s Pawesome Guide to Mental Health Guide

Gizmo’s Pawesome Guide to Mental Health takes an upstream approach to support the mental health and wellness of youth. It is data-driven and evidence-informed. The Guide seeks to introduce mental health and wellness, and how to care for one’s mental health in a nonthreatening way that encourages the self-identification of warning signs and when to apply the use of internal and external healthy coping strategies to help reduce risk. It introduces the characteristics of trusted adults, who may be one, how to practice talking with a trusted adult, and promotes proactive communication. It gives youth the opportunity to create a personal mental health plan (of action) that they can use daily, and in a time of need that can help them avert crisis. This program teaches information that children can take with them and tools they can use throughout the life span.
It’s Real: Teens and Mental Health
Intended for high school classes or community settings with groups of teens, ages from 14 to 18, It’s Real: Teens and Mental Health is a 45-minute program that raises awareness about mental health issues, how to start a conversation about mental health, the importance of self-care, and how to reach out for help.

Parents:

More Than Sad: Parent Education
This training is a 90-minute program that teaches parents how to recognize signs of depression and other mental health problems; initiate a conversation about mental health with their child; and get help. This program focuses on parents and guardians of teen youth.

General Public:

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) is a two-day interactive workshop that teaches participants to recognize when someone may have thoughts of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their immediate safety.
Suicide Alertness for Everyone-Tell Ask Listen Keepsafe (SafeTALK)

SafeTALK is a half-day alertness training that prepares anyone 15 or older, regardless of prior experience or training, to recognize warning signs of suicide, effectively communicate with individuals who are thinking about suicide, and connect them with life-saving intervention resources. Three contact hours are available for Social Workers, Licensed Mental Health Counselors, and Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselors (CASACs).
QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer — the 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. Participants will learn to recognize warning signs of suicide, how to offer hope, and how to get help.
Talk Saves Lives is a 1-hour training where participants learn the risks, warning signs and complexities of suicide and how to help prevent it.

Don’t See What You’re Looking For?

We can develop and tailor trainings to fit the needs of the person requesting them. If they wish to receive a training that is not listed on our website, they can still reach out to us, and we can help.