Wednesday, September 25, 2019, PA Counseling Services, Lebanon, PA
8:30am to 12:30pm

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.  Dr. Smith directly addresses this worst-case scenario for therapists, describing common emotional processes and how to manage them when a client dies.  Even though this workshop is primarily devoted to prevention, preparation is crucial for therapists working with children who have a serious emotional disturbance.  Preventing teen suicide requires therapists to have 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.  The preventive focus of this workshop is primarily on the latter – developing effective safety plans.   Dr. Jones introduces and explains how to to use a modified version of Stanely and Brown’s six-step evidence-informed approach to safety planning.   Strategies for collaboratively developing safety plans with teens and their caregivers, which is meaningful and which they can actually implement in a crisis, are demonstrated through videotapes and a case study.

As a result of attending this continuing education activity, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the purpose of a safety plan
2. Explain how to structure and conduct an effective safety planning session
3. Describe the six steps of safety planning
4. Identify signs of grief and explain the emotional process when a client suicide occurs

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