Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
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PREVENTION & EDUCATION
Effective suicide prevention requires more than curriculum materials and screening tools. School personnel must possess knowledge, skills, and confidence to address sensitive mental health topics with students, handle emotional responses during program delivery, and manage crisis situations that may arise when students disclose suicidal thoughts or behaviors.
Many educators feel unprepared to discuss suicide and mental health despite their daily interactions with students. Research indicates that teachers often lack sufficient training in mental health topics, leaving them uncertain about how to respond when students show warning signs or seek help. The SOS training program directly addresses these gaps, providing comprehensive preparation that empowers school staff to fulfill their roles in suicide prevention.
Training also ensures program fidelity, meaning the SOS program is delivered as designed by its developers. Research demonstrates that prevention programs achieve optimal outcomes when implemented according to established protocols. Training helps schools maintain fidelity while adapting implementation to fit their specific contexts and student populations.
Mental Health Education provides foundational knowledge about depression, suicide, and related mental health conditions affecting adolescents. Training participants learn about prevalence rates, risk factors, protective factors, and the neurobiological basis of mental health conditions. This foundation helps educators understand the serious medical nature of depression and suicidal ideation rather than viewing these issues as typical teenage angst or attention-seeking behavior.
Participants explore the relationship between mental health conditions and suicide, learning that the majority of individuals who die by suicide experienced diagnosable mental health conditions. Understanding this connection emphasizes the importance of early identification and treatment of depression and other conditions that increase suicide risk.
Warning Signs Recognition trains school personnel to identify behavioral, emotional, and verbal indicators suggesting a student may be contemplating suicide. Training covers specific warning signs including talking about wanting to die or having no reason to live, expressing feelings of hopelessness or being trapped, withdrawing from friends and activities, increasing alcohol or drug use, acting anxious or agitated, sleeping too much or too little, and displaying extreme mood swings.
Participants learn to recognize patterns of warning signs that warrant immediate concern and action. Training emphasizes that multiple warning signs appearing together represent higher risk than isolated indicators. School staff practice identifying warning signs through case studies and scenarios reflecting realistic situations they may encounter in their schools.
Curriculum Delivery Training prepares educators to facilitate SOS lessons effectively with students. Participants learn instructional strategies for presenting sensitive mental health content in age-appropriate, engaging ways. Training covers techniques for managing classroom discussions about suicide, responding to emotional reactions students may have during lessons, and creating safe environments where students feel comfortable asking questions and sharing concerns.
Video components of the SOS curriculum receive particular attention during training. Facilitators learn how to introduce videos, guide post-viewing discussions, and connect video content to key learning objectives. Training emphasizes the importance of processing videos with students rather than simply showing them without context or follow-up discussion.
Screening Administration and Protocols prepare designated school personnel to oversee the screening component of the SOS program. Training covers screening administration procedures, confidentiality requirements, result interpretation, and protocols for contacting students who screen positive for depression or suicide risk. Participants learn how to conduct sensitive follow-up conversations with at-risk students, assess immediate safety, and determine appropriate next steps.
Crisis response protocols represent a critical training element. School staff learn procedures for handling situations where students express immediate suicidal intent during or after screening. Training covers when to contact parents, when to involve law enforcement or emergency services, and how to maintain student safety while coordinating appropriate professional intervention.
PROMOTIONS & SUPPORT
The SOS training program incorporates gatekeeper training principles, preparing school personnel to serve as frontline identifiers of at-risk youth. Gatekeeper training has demonstrated effectiveness in increasing knowledge about suicide, improving attitudes toward intervention, and building confidence in responding to individuals showing warning signs.
Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) represents a commonly integrated gatekeeper approach. Training teaches school staff to question individuals about suicidal thoughts directly, persuade them to seek help, and refer them to appropriate resources. The training dispels myths about asking about suicide, emphasizing that direct questions do not plant ideas but rather show concern and open doors to intervention.
Role-playing exercises during training allow participants to practice gatekeeper skills in safe, supervised settings. These experiential activities build confidence and competence in having difficult conversations with students about mental health and suicide. Participants receive feedback from trainers and peers, refining their approach before applying skills in real-world situations.
Training emphasizes that suicide prevention requires coordinated efforts across school personnel rather than relying on isolated individuals. Participants learn to work as teams, understanding each person’s role in comprehensive prevention systems.
School counselors and mental health professionals receive specialized training in conducting comprehensive risk assessments, developing safety plans, coordinating referrals to community mental health providers, and maintaining ongoing support for at-risk students. Their advanced training prepares them to handle complex cases and serve as resources for teachers and other staff members.
Teachers and other educators learn to recognize warning signs, facilitate SOS curriculum delivery, encourage help-seeking among students, and make appropriate referrals to counselors and mental health professionals. Their training emphasizes observation and connection rather than clinical assessment, ensuring they work within appropriate professional boundaries.
Administrators receive training on program oversight, policy development supporting mental health initiatives, communication with parents and community stakeholders, and resource allocation for sustainability. Their understanding of SOS components and requirements enables effective leadership and support for implementation.
Initial training prepares school personnel for SOS program launch, but ongoing professional development maintains quality implementation over time. Refresher training addresses common implementation challenges, updates staff on new research and best practices, and reinforces key concepts that may fade without regular review.
New staff joining schools after initial implementation require training to ensure program continuity. Schools establish systems for training new hires, maintaining consistent SOS knowledge and skills across all personnel involved in program delivery.
RISK MANAGEMENT & LIABILITY
Quality training programs include evaluation components assessing knowledge gains, skill development, and confidence changes among participants. Pre-training and post-training assessments document learning outcomes while identifying areas requiring additional emphasis or clarification.
Follow-up evaluation examines how trained personnel apply skills in practice. Schools track metrics including number of student referrals made by trained staff, timeliness of responses to warning signs, and quality of crisis interventions. These data inform training refinements and identify needs for additional support or professional development.
Well-trained school personnel create safer environments where struggling students receive timely identification and intervention. When educators possess knowledge, skills, and confidence to address youth suicide, they transform schools into protective systems capable of saving lives.
The SOS training program ensures that suicide prevention extends beyond curriculum delivery to comprehensive cultural change within schools. Through quality preparation of all school personnel, training creates communities of informed, capable gatekeepers working together to protect youth mental health and prevent suicide.
FEATURED PROGRAMS
SOS Second Act is designed to build resiliency in young adults. In addition to reviewing the signs and symptoms of depression and suicidality, students are prompted to discuss substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Students are provided with a solid foundation on health care basics, health insurance, and self-care tips on seeking mental health treatment in the “real world.”
The Online Parent Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression (BSAD) allows parents to assess their child for suicide or depression risk factors. After parents complete a series of questions online, the screening provides results, local referral options (determined by each school), and relevant, educational information.