Preventing Teen Suicide

Despite the best efforts of therapists treating high risk teens in intensive, community based treatment programs, too many are still ending their lives through suicide. This means that good treatment alone is insufficient to prevent teen suicide. Also required is a sound knowledge about the nature of suicide, skills in assessing for suicide ideation and acute risk of suicide, and competency in co-developing effective safety plans with teens and their families. This is the focus of this course.

The content of this course is informed by published national core competencies in assessing and managing suicide risk (Suicide Prevention Resource Center, American Association of Suicidology, and SAMSHA). The webinars are comprised of excerpts taken from two different live workshops given to Family Based therapists and supervisors. Dr. Wintersteen’s workshop was sponsored by the Philadelphia Child And Family Therapy Training Center in June, 2016, while Dr. Jones’s workshop was sponsored by the Center for Family Based Training in May, 2016.

This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Identify eight common myths about teen suicide and describe the corresponding facts for each one
Identify 12 critical suicide risk assessment questions
Describe the six steps of safety planning

Course Outline

Unit 1: Understanding Teen Suicide (40 minutes)
- Webinar: The Scope of Teen Suicide
- Webinar: Common Myths About Teen Suicide

Unit 2: Assessing the Risk of Suicide (70 minutes)
- Webinar: Barriers to Conversations about Suicide
- Webinar: Tips for Having Conversations about Suicide
- Webinars: Generating Valid Data
- Webinars: The Questions to Ask in Risk Assessment
- Reading: Uncovering Suicide Intent

Unit 3: Creating Effective Safety Plans (60 minutes)
- Webinar: An Introduction to Safety Plans
- Webinar: Safety Planning Steps 1-3
- Webinar: Safety Planning Steps 3-6
- Safety Plan template

Unit 4: Optional Online Resources on Suicide, and Suicide Assessment

About the Presenters

Matthew B. Wintersteen, PhD is a Licensed Psychologist. He received his degree at the University of Tennessee and did his Fellowship at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He currently serves as an Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University. His areas of specialty are suicide prevention and intervention for youth and young adults. He is leading a project, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), that focuses on developing and implementing suicide prevention education, policies, and procedures into Pennsylvania’s schools and colleges.

Click here for information on C. Wayne Jones, PhD.

This course uses an online distance-learning self-paced format. It includes recorded audio, recorded video-based webinars, and selected readings. There are post-tests to ensure comprehension of the material. Participants can communicate with the instructors via the online moodle interface. Real-time communication with the instructor in our online, self-paced distance learning courses is not possible. However, participants can send an email to the instructor via the online moodle interface within the course and expect to receive a response within 48 hours. All course content, including post-tests, should take approximately 3.0 hours to complete.

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our Self-Paced, Online Continuing Education Policies & FAQs for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.

Crafting Meaningful Treatment Goals and Action Steps

This course focuses on one of the most critical components of treatment success, creating meaningful, measureable goals and action steps that are systemically informed. A case is made for restricting the number of long term goals in order to achieve “laser focus,” which is important to engagement and motivation in the change process. Guidance is provided on how to choose the best focus for the overarching treatment goal and how to structure it so it is most effective. This course demonstrates how to apply the SMART approach to the development of clinical goals in intensive, in-home programs. For development of more achievable action steps, the power of incremental, tiny habits is described and demonstrated. Concrete examples of both clinically sound and unsound goals and action steps are provided.

This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the rationale for a one-goal treatment plan that flows directly from the case conceptualization
2. Demonstrate how to use the SMART format as a rubric for writing and evaluating clinical goals
3. Describe the principle of “tiny habits” and show how to use it in developing achievable action steps

Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our Online Course Policies for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.

An Eco-Systemic Approach to Trauma-Impacted Families

Most families treated in intensive, in-home programs have been impacted by complex developmental trauma. Although every family adapts in their own way, there are several predictable negative adaptive patterns which have direct implications for a present-focused family based treatment. It is important for therapists to recognize these patterns, interrupt them, and create more functional ones. Towards this end, this course describes 1) the most common impacts of complex developmental trauma on the way families organize their relationships with one another and the community, 2) how the four pillars of ESFT are designed to address these common negative impacts, and 3) strategies for structuring trauma informed conversations with families.

This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.

Course Objectives

Identify the most common negative impacts of complex developmental trauma on the family system
Describe strategies used in the ESFT model to address the most common negative impacts of trauma on the family
Describe how to introduce and facilitate trauma informed conversations among family members and develop more functional relational patterns

Impacts of Trauma on Children and Their Caregivers

The high prevalence of trauma among the children and caregivers served by community based programs demands that all intervention be informed by a clear understanding of trauma and its impacts. This course describes in detail how a history of danger and emotional injury shapes family member attitudes, expectations and relationships — and the implications these trauma histories have for a “present focused” family-based treatment.

This course is designed to help therapists “see” family member’s efforts to adapt to fear and vulnerability that is often hidden beneath dramatic, seemingly irrational interactions. And then be able to utilize this awareness within a systemic framework to help families create more safe, stable and functional relationships. The course is organized into four units, each addressing one major question or component considered essential for the well-prepared trauma informed family based therapist.

This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.

Learning Objectives

Describe the core principles of a trauma-informed approach and the reasons it is critical for family based programs to incorporate these principles into the treatment of children with SED and their caregivers
Describe the nature of trauma, particularly when it is chronic as in Complex Developmental Trauma Disorder
Explain common impacts of chronic trauma on the internal and relational experience of children and families.

Course Outline

Unit 1: The Importance of a Trauma-Informed Approach to Treatment (60 minutes)
- Webinar: Being a Child Can Be Dangerous
- Webinar: Working with Wounded Caregivers
- Webinar: Trauma Informed Treatment & ESFT
- Video on Complex Developmental Trauma

Unit 2: Trauma and Complex Developmental Trauma Disorder (Approx 60 minutes)
- Webinar: The Nature of Trauma
- Webinar: In Their Own Voices – Teens with Complex Developmental Trauma Disorder talk about their experiences
- Resources: Checklists for Identifying Trauma Symptoms

Unit 3: The Impact of Trauma on Health and Development (50 minutes)
- Webinar: The Impact of Chronic Hyperarousal on Health
- Webinar: Developmental & Psychological Impacts of Trauma
- Video: How Childhood Trauma Differs from Complex Trauma

Optional Online Resources on Trauma and Complex Trauma

The Foundations of Good Clinical Supervision

This course describes the attitudes and actions of clinical supervisors considered “good” and effective. These attitudes and actions are contrasted with supervisors recalled as “bad” or ineffective. Readings from articles in the supervision literature are used to supplement and elaborate on these attitudes and actions. Particular focus is given to the differences between administrative supervision, clinical supervision and training. Five key responsibilities of clinical supervisors in high quality or evidence based programs are identified and discussed in detail.

This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health supervisors of therapists working with children and adolescents.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the differences between administrative supervision, clinical supervision and training.
2. Identify the attitudes and behaviors of “good” and “bad” clinical supervisors.
3. Identify five core responsibilities of clinical supervisors associated with high quality service delivery.

Course Objectives At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Course Objectives At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to: