Anyone is at risk of suicide, it does not choose by gender, social status, or age. We must be reminded that everyone’s threshold for stress and pain is different, and what might seem like petty issues for some can be life-altering to another. Any warning signs must be taken seriously and dealt with accordingly.

However, the subject of suicide is difficult to have a conversation about. Discussing things that surround it is like walking on eggshells. Whether it is with the person with suicidal thoughts, family members who lost a loved one through suicide, or someone who attempted in the past.

Today’s resource speaker is Amy Morgan. She is the Director of Academy Hour and has significant contributions and background in the field of mental health, law enforcement, training and suicide prevention. She joins us on this webinar to provide guidelines and insights to tackle otherwise uncomfortable topic of suicide and save lives. We talk about the causes of suicidal thoughts, the different stressors, responding to signs of suicide, and the three areas of response to this issue.

The areas that Amy covered in this edition of the Justice Clearinghouse webinar include:

• The various life stressors that burden us as human beings and how carrying too much of a load can cause an individual to give up.
• What is suicide, why people get suicidal thoughts and the two major categories of the reasons why people consider having suicide.
• The three major areas of suicide response defined by Amy as Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention.
• The goals of Prevention in suicide response defined as:
  • Have the person stay healthy and well
  • Help people deal with life
  • Prevent elements leading to suicidal thoughts
  • Teach tools for coping
  • Recognize signs of self-destruction before they turn into suicidal thoughts
• The things to be enacted in Intervention in suicide response including:
  • Recognize signs of suicidal thoughts
  • Aid the person-at-risk to find resources to deal with their problems
  • Implementing a Safeplan with the individual
• What is involved in Postvention:
  • Caring for those left behind by someone who committed suicide
  • Preventing a new cycle to those left behind
  • Acknowledging that those left behind are highly probably to have suicidal thoughts
  • Watching out for signs as in the prevention phase.
• Differentiating prevention from intervention.
• The different warning signs to look for and what you can do as a caregiver during the prevention phase.
• The ASIST model of suicidal behavior.
• How intervention works through a three-phase model of Connecting, Understanding, and Assisting.
• Questions to ask, things to say, and red flags and risk factors to watch out for during the connection phase.
• The importance of listening during the understanding phase and specific things to watch out for when listening.
• What happens in the assisting phase and how to come up with a Safeplan agreement with the individual-at-risk.
• The full cycle that is involved in the postvention stage.
• The questions that those left behind might be asking and how to provide them assistance.
• Poll questions were asked throughout the webinar gauging the webinar attendees’ familiarity with the subject, skills, and capabilities.
• The Q&A provided insightful inquiries and feedback from the webinar attendees.