An update from the American Association of Suicidology (AAS)
Organizations nationwide are raising awareness about suicide risk and warning signs
in order to get individuals to seek the care of a competent professional. But are
mental health clinicians adequately trained to recognize and respond to a person at
risk for suicide? Have they received training in how to assess an individual’s level
of risk, develop a treatment plan appropriate to that level of risk, and/or implement
and effectively manage a treatment plan to diminish the suicide risk? Probably not.
A competent mental health clinician should have both the knowledge and skills to
effectively recognize and respond to assessed suicide risk, but many training programs
do not cover the topic adequately.
To meet this need, AAS and a nationally renowned task force of clinical suicidologists
have developed a clinical training program called
Recognizing and Responding to Suicide Risk: Essential Skills for Clinicians (RRSR).
RRSR is program that incorporates online learning with a workshop, two days of classroom
instruction, and a web-based system of mentoring. RRSR was created for the Suicide Prevention
Resource Center, which offers the same knowledge in a one-day format called Assessing and
Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR).
To schedule an RRSR training, contact Andrea Price,
Training Program Manager at the American Association of Suicidology at (202) 237-2280.