All of School Approach to Suicide Prevention
Comprehensive, Contemporary & Evidence Based
Every staff member has a role to play in suicide prevention and there is a lot that can be done with a degree of mindful intentionality that goes way beyond gatekeeping into services.
The eyes cant see and the ears cant hear what the mind doesn’t know. Knowing what emotional pain looks like, sounds like and feels like is the first step in being able to spot a student who may be struggling. Spotting these warning signs, reaching out and listening with care and compassion is often all that is needed. And the truth is you are doing most of it anyway, all we hope to add is a degree of intentionality to your conversations by providing you with the knowledge, understanding and confidence you need to navigate challenging scenarios.
PROTECT LIFE PEARLS is a comprehensive teaching and training program in suicide prevention that has been designed specifically for schools. The different components are interlinked and embedding knowledge in one tier enhances the other. However, we understand that different schools have different needs and resources and we will work in partnership with the school leadership to design and provide a customised learning package / plan.
PROTECT is for for mental health professionals at school. All secondary school staff will benefit from LIFE, with the Life Guide component of action learning sets being specifically for those in leadership positions. PEARLS is for secondary school students.
The full program ranges from foundational skills of establishing facts and fiction, simple but effective dos and don’ts, all the way to an advanced program for educational staff with special expertise in health which will equip them with contemporary evidence based suicide prevention practice.
We all have a part to play in reducing suicide and supporting those who are struggling. Knowledge is the light that can eradicate the darkness of stigma. In our schools lie our future. A seed of knowledge planted in our school will flourish and blossom as a tomorrow of positive mental health.
Benefits for the School
Progress Guide’s offering for schools embeds suicide prevention in a values based approach to positive mental health promotion. Suicide prevention knowledge and skills result in proactive detection of suicidal distress and rapid intervention. School leadership are also trained in supportive postvention approaches so that they can provide a path for the school community to heal if the worst did happen.
The different tiers of training draw on well established evidence based practices from mental health promotion. In particular the content relating to the values based approach from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is of particular significance to creating long term resilience and safety.
This is at the heart of the multitiered training, with complexity increasing at each level. The training (PROTECT) delivered to school health professionals like school counsellors provides advanced skills in suicide risk assessment and management. The training delivered to teachers (LIFE) and students (PEARLS) provides simple but effective means to ask about suicide with confidence.
The suicide prevention skills provides a shared language across the whole school to talk about suicidal distress. A narrative of psychological / emotional pain makes it easier for students to open up and seek help. Teachers are more aware for early warning signs and can clearly ask about suicide in a supportive fashion.
Early detection results in early intervention. Progress Guide will work with your school to refine your care pathway for students in need. We use the AIMS approach to care. It breaks down the recovery journey into Assessment, Interventions, Monitoring, Step up / down. These bite size chunks can be fine tuned and there is often room for more clarity in terms of who is responsible for what, where and how. Schools find this consultancy support invaluable to bring progress to practice.
Unfortunately for some school the worst does happen. It is challenging, if not impossible to piece together what needs to be done in the here and now. We work with schools to maintain a state of preparedness so that they can respond meaningfully through their Crisis Response Team in case of a student or staff suicide. The need for sensitive communication and support for vulnerable students is critical. We provide the essential training through the LIFE Guide part of our school offering to school leadership.
Counsellors
PROTECT will provide your school counsellors, social workers, educational psychologists, school nurses with a range of contemporary evidence based suicide prevention practice. The confidence and upskilling reported in pre and post training surveys is significant. Counsellors will not just be able to screen for suicide but will be able to provide an assessment and a formulation when they refer patients on for care within the public and /or the private health care system. This enhanced understanding will provide the school the necessary confidence to support the young person’s recovery more effectively. This often translates into earlier return to school and less isolation for the young person.
Principals, Heads
School Principals, Vice Principals, Heads of Year and others in a leadership role will be able to join the LIFE Guide 6 action learning sets that are included in the overarching package. They will form the guiding coalition for the three tier role out of the training. They will receive mentoring in how to improve their current practices for proactive detection and rapid intervention. They will have the opportunity to confidentially discuss challenging scenarios and use them for learning and future support for students. Most importantly they will prepared for the worst case scenario of a suicide in school so that they can lead their school community through a challenging time.
Teachers
The four modules of LIFE, provides the essential skills that teachers need to Listen with care and compassion, Identify emotional pain, Foster hope and Establish safety. The training draws on teacher’s strengths and current skills set and builds on them using evidence based psychological strategies. The training works on the principle that everyone has a role to play in creating a safe school environment. Anything that is meaningful has the possibility of being the source of emotional pain. Teachers often come across such scenarios and the training is designed to make conversations between teachers and students intentional so that the young person has a non-judgemental space to open up.
Students
PEARLS draws on content from PROTECT and LIFE, creating a shared language. The training provides adolescents an understanding of emotional pain and suicidal distress. This knowledge eradicates the darkness of stigma making it easier for them to talk about emotional pain and suicidal thoughts if they are struggling themselves. They may apply the knowledge to others too. Young people often share with their friends what they might not share with adults. Providing students a clear path to follow if they come across such distress is enabling and empowering for them. They do not have to hold the responsibility for such distress and can share with appropriate adults in a timely fashion, enhancing safety.