Suicide and Youth: Understanding, Safety Planning and Decreasing Future Suicidal Ideation with System Involved Youth

Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW

Training Description

Come to this training on understanding suicidal ideation with system involved youth. This is going to be a training within the context of family because we need the larger team to keep system involved youth safe. We are going to talk about why youth might choose suicide, things to look for, how we talk about it, and ways to keep system involved youth safe! However, once youth are safe, our focus will shift to how do we keep them alive and having a future outlook that does not include seeing suicide as a viable option for managing their pain. Additionally, we are going to be learning about the pandemic as it relates to suicide.

Learning Objectives

1.  Describe and understand what suicidal ideation (SI) represents and how to explore it with system involved youth.

2.  Learn about the pandemic’s continuing impact on suicide.

3.  Identify what signs look like and some strategies for keeping system involved youth safe in the moment.

4.  Apply our understanding of what SI means to ways that we can support youth and their families in our systems of care in an effort to decrease the chances that this SI will continue to feel like an option in the future.

Agenda 

Day 1: 9/22/22

9:30-9:45AM  Sign In, introductions, and Zoom features

9:45-10:00AM  Suicide myths including an overview of the issue.

10:00-10:30AM  The impact of the pandemic on suicidality.

10:30-10:45AM  Brainstorming of attachment ruptures in system-involved youth.

10:45-11:15AM  Group work on identifying the problem: How do we talk about it?

11:15-11:30AM  Break (CE Hours will not be issued for this time)

11:30AM-12:00PM  Review of risk factors and protective factors!

12:00-12:30PM  Culture and Suicidality: What does it mean?

12:30-12:45PM  Check out and adjournment

Day 2: 9/30/22

9:30-9:45AM  Sign In, introductions

9:45-10:15AM  The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide: Understanding how this works!

10:15-10:30AM  Group work: Debriefing and consolidating the concepts of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide.

10:30-11:00AM  Immediate Safety: Strategies to prevent suicide now!

11:00-11:15AM  Break (CE Hours will not be issued for this time)

11:15-11:30AM  Diagnosing the pain!

11:30-11:45AM  Pain in Heart Theory (PITH) and healing: Going deeper than coping skills can handle when pain is this big – healing the pain instead of pushing it down for it to come up again in the future.

11:45AM-12:15PM  Group work: Debriefing PITH, deep healing, and the importance of empathy for caregivers as a way of preventing future attempts.

12:15-12:30PM  Facilitative questions to start to allow family members to talk about the pain and a youth presentation to apply the learning.

12:30-12:45PM  Check-out and ADJOURNMENT

Meet Our Trainer

Pamela Parkinson, PhD, LCSW, is a clinical psychologist and clinical social worker, whose specialty area is working with youth and their families. Dr. Parkinson has spent most of her career working with system involved youth in our Continuum of Care (foster care, juvenile justice, mental health and the kids struggling in our school systems). She is a certified PCOMS evidence-based practice trainer. Pamela currently works as a child/family consultant to community based organizations in the Bay Area and has worked in level 14 residential, Non Public Schools, hospitals, and a variety of community-based settings including outpatient clinics, schools, diversion, kinship, etc.

This course meets the qualifications for (7.0) BBS CE Hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.