Suicidality and Suicide Loss in Children and Teens: Prevent Suicide and Restore Hope to Kids Grieving After Traumatic Loss – Leslie W. Baker and Mary Ruth Cross

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Suicide shatters worlds. And working with suicide is one of the most nerve-wracking and emotionally draining parts of your job.

Whether your client is a suicidal young person, or one who’s grieving in the aftermath of a loved one’s death by suicide, the weight of the situation can leave you feeling uncertain of your next steps and looking for answers …

• How do I identify true suicidal intent and/or lethality?
• How do I effectively work with kids and adolescents when their developmental levels vary drastically?
• How do I restore hope when a loved one’s sudden, and sometimes violent, death has left a child or adolescent in an emotional freefall?

This recording will provide you with answers to your toughest questions and give you the tools you need to assess for suicide risk in kids and adolescents, effectively intervene in suicidal crisis, and help them cope with the feelings that can leave them at risk for suicide.

You’ll also learn how to apply play therapy interventions for children and teens whose worlds’ have been shattered following a loved ones’ death by suicide.

Along with guidance from our expert instructors, these evidence-based techniques will empower you to work with vulnerable young people experiencing traumatic grief more skillfully than ever before.

This recording will leave you feeling confident and capable in your ability to move young clients toward hope and healing!

1. Identify risk factors and warning signs of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents to increase skills in risk assessment of suicidality.
2. Analyze protective factors that may reduce suicidal behavior in children and teens.
3. Apply play-based interventions to reduce suicidal thoughts and/or suicidal behaviors in children and teens.
4. Implement assessment tools that identify children and teens at highest risk for suicidality.
5. Determine the role of parents and caregivers in suicide risk assessment and prevention situations.
6. Articulate and apply play-based interventions to address childhood traumatic grief (CTG) for children and teens who are survivors of suicide loss.

Warning Signs For Children and Teens

• Risk factors with or without a mental health diagnosis
• Build compassion, reduce stigma for clinicians and parents
• Determine roles in suicide risk assessment situations

Risk Assessment And Crisis Response

• Implicit vs. explicit forms of expressions of suicidality
• Listening, supportive, caring response
• Introduction of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale – C-SSRS
• Brief protocols for assessment and treatment

Creating The Treatment Plan

• Protective factors: Adults vs Youth
• Complicating factors for children and teens: dual diagnosis, negative life events
• Handling a crisis of suicidal intent or ideation
  • Clinician – Case examples of applying assessment protocol and action
  • Parents & caregivers – Case examples of applying assessment protocol and action

Bringing The Prefrontal Cortex Back Online

• Bottom-up treatment approach to calm, regulate and soothe
• Match intervention to brain development
• Develop brain-based treatment plan

Suicide Prevention

• CBT Interventions & Play-based interventions adapted for ages 4-20
  • Explore with symbols and/or words – “Puzzling” Warning Signs
  • Thought-stopping, self-soothing: affirmations, mediation and mantras – Stop & Calm
  • Key areas of prevention – Three Circles of Hope
  • Skills to assist in coping, promoting social connection, increasing support, removing access to lethal means – Handy Circle
  • Caring Contacts, keeping connected – Hope Notes & Post Cards
  • Safety Planning – Bee-Safe, MY3 APP

Treatment of Traumatic Grief After Suicide Loss

• Emotional regulation and containment
  • Guided imagery to recreate scene of passing, create new reality
  • Explore the changes since the loss
  • Promote mastery & control in communication
• Memorializing, Legacy, Imaginal Dialogue
  • Continue bonds and relationships
  • Memorialize in a safe and non-permanent manner
  • Process feelings in imaginal dialogue
• Story Telling and Social Action
  • Express your story in the sandtray
  • Hope for the future
  • In Action! Integrating loss – Impacting Community

Supporting School Staff, Parents and Caregivers

• Manage suicidal thoughts & behaviors
• Caregiver assess risk
• Address fears, worries and concerns
• Hospitalization, after care, and reducing suicidal ideation
• Resources for teachers, parents and caregivers