Professional Development Workshop for Suicide Intervention

Suicide prevention is a global imperative, however prevention efforts thus far have corresponded with a steady increase in the number of people dying by suicide (WHO 2014). Mental health services are key respondents to people in suicidal crisis, yet clinicians may be inadequately prepared to provide optimal care to people in that context (Talseth & Gilje 2011). Professional development is essential to enabling more effective engagement with people experiencing suicidal crisis (Lees et al. 2014).

This paper discusses a professional development workshop model for suicide intervention that is being delivered to groups of mental health clinicians from a mixture of disciplines and services in Australia. The model emphasises the importance of raising literacy levels, inter-disciplinary sharing of experiences and knowledge, and the promotion of group and individual critical reflection. Evaluation of the workshop indicates positive benefits, particularly as participants are enabled to identify individual strategies for enhanced therapeutic engagement with people experiencing suicidal crisis.