Primary Care Suicide Prevention Training
General Practitioners, Surgery Staff and Non-Mental Health Hospital Staff
Primary Care Suicide Prevention Masterclass for the COVID Era: LIFE Care
Primary Care is the foundation of all health care. Often as the first point of contact, General Practitioners (GP) sense and detect impending mental health crisis and within the confines of limited time and minimal information they act, setting in motion a sequence of events that ensures safety through ongoing support in primary care and / or an appropriate referral for assessment and treatment in secondary care. This demand on our GP’s time and an expectation to respond appropriately, effectively and rapidly to suicidal crisis is only set to grow with the parallel pandemic of psychological distress and dysfunction in the COVID era.
Who will deliver the course?
The course will be delivered by Assoc Prof Manaan Kar Ray. Manaan is the Director of Adult Mental Health at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia and an Associate Professor at the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention. He trained as an Adult Psychiatrist in Oxford, UK and prior to his move to Australia served as the Clinical Director of Adult Mental Health in Cambridge, UK, for a decade. He has designed a range of innovative, highly acclaimed services for people in mental health crisis, the most relevant to this course being PRISM (PRImary care Service for Mental health) in Cambridge, UK. He is passionate about training professionals in in suicide prevention and has done so on all five continents.
LIFE is a custom-made suicide prevention masterclass (2 hours / flexible based on need) for GPs that considers the primary care work environment. It blends the essential skills and competencies needed for rapid detection, assessment and referral along with the latest research and advanced practice of maintaining a therapeutic relationship, safety planning and resilience building. Based on the internationally acclaimed PROTECT framework, it is designed to transform busy GPs into hope vendors, supporting people to understand that suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems and that their pain can either be chipped away at or their tolerance can be enhanced.
Who should attend?
All primary care staff (GPs, nurses, allied health etc) will benefit from LIFE. Experienced professionals will get the opportunity to refresh their competencies and pick up new skills and concepts while newcomers in healthcare will gain a strong foundation in suicide risk assessment and management.
Why attend the LIFE Masterclass?
LIFE has been specifically designed with the busy jobbing GP in mind. The evidence based theoretical concepts and its practical applications and training delivery are all:
- Innovative – novel approaches incorporating the latest research.
- Intuitive – complexity simplified through structure and sequence for rapid learning and clinical use.
- Interactive – case studies drawing on prior knowledge and experience used with adult learning principles
LIFE will provide a rapid refresh of essential skills for assessment, formulation and documentation while providing a range of advanced skills in brief interventions like safety planning and resilience building.
CARE
The first module provides the essentials of connecting with a person in suicidal distress. It seeks to bring about a key mindset shift in GPs. Rather than filling a template capturing “what’s the matter with you” it shifts the focus to genuine listening to establish “what matters to you.”
PAIN
The second module connects the source of the pain with active symptomatology and provides time efficient strategies that GPs can use to elicit information rapidly. The goal is to capture the information in a coherent formulation and write notes that add value.
SAFE
The third module provides the essential skills GPs need to conduct safety planning. This is a core competency in suicide prevention and the module covers upcoming risky scenarios, reducing access to means, alcohol and other drugs, garnering support from family and an emergency plan.
HOPE
The final module provides valuable skills for GPs who have a life long relationship with patients, particularly those who may be struggling with chronic suicidality e.g. borderline personality disorder. The focus is on understanding the use of values to support longer term recovery.