Suicide Prevention Workshops

To reduce the high rates of suicide in this country a workforce and confident and competent in assessing risk and providing ongoing support to suicidal people is essential. 

Based on the latest suicide prevention research evidence, workforce development and sector capability building are critical strategic actions to achieve a confident and competent workforce. Examples of this are:

The provision of advanced competency basedsuicide prevention training pitched at the level of counsellors' and clinicians' scope of practice
Workforce that operares within the ethical and legal obligations of their code of practice
Clinical supervisors who are skilled to assist the supervisee to reflect on their interaction with a suicidal person and to ensure safe and competent practice 

Workshop Description:

It is with these outcomes in mind that this workshop for clinical / counselling supervisors was developed.  Being offered for the first time in Aotearoa-New Zealand, this workshop provides the opportunity for supervisors to reflect ontheir own understanding and experience of the suicidal client as well as the issues around suicidality that the supervisee raises in supervision.
The workshop will focus on the different issues and dynamics arising in suicide risk assessment,  safe containment, referal to other services.  

The group process in the workshop will focus on identifying useful strategies to assist the supervisee to process their interactions with clients across the suicidal continuum - pre-suicidal, suicidal ideation, imminent danger, suicidal behaviour and attempts, death by suicide.

"The way schools respond to wellbeing-related concerns, issues, crises and incidents is closely linked to the way in which their school culture and associated values and beliefs underpin their curriculum, responses and pastoral care decisions"

(ERO - Wellbeing for Success: A Resource for Schools)

The learning outcomes of the workshop series is for participants to:

have a sound of understanding of suicidality in young people
feel comfortable in a situation of suicide disclosure
be confident in enquiring more if they are concerned about a student's wellbeing
respond in a safe and calming way 
be clear about the boundaries in their roles and skills
make an informed referral to counselling staff
have an understanding of duty care and confidentiality in relation to suicidality in a student
utilise debriefing and self care strategies after an intense situation

An opportunity for Deans to present scenarios or situations which they find challenging in pastoral care situations and as a group will collectively reflect on possible solutions.

At times in academic, disciplinary or other pastoral care discussions the behaviour or mood of a student may cause concern to a year level Dean or other non-counselling staff involved in the provision of pastoral care. Is there a need for that concern to be actioned upon? Maybe the subject or disclosure of suicide may occur.  How best should non-counselling staff respond in the first instance? 

In this workshop, which is specifically designed for deans and other non-counselling school staff involved in providing pastoral care to student, participants s will have the opportunity examine these issues. The workshop will address those common fears of saying or doing something that makes the situation worse or betraying the students trust. The main aim of the workshop is to assist for pastoral care staff to be more comfortable and confident to respond in a safe and appropriate manner.

Topics covered will include:

Pastoral not therapeutic - skills for Deans responding to suicidality
Don't panic - strategies to contain in the first instance a suicide crisis situation
The continuum of care - the interface of pastoral care and counselling in the ongoing care and support of a vulnerable student
Reflecting and learning: those 'what should I do now" moments - a group reflection 
Anxious vs fearful, looking after yourself after a difficult pastoral care situation
Pastoral care roles in a school in the event of a suicide death
What does your pastoral care plans - an audit of policies and procedures in case of suicide

Workshop Dates 2024

Take the opportunity in this learn-by-doing workshop to audit whether your organisation: a) provides an appropriate and safe whole-of-service response in the engagement with and support of a suicidal person;
b) has clear clinical governance guidelines, policies and procedures and referral pathways for both crisis intervention and ongoing support contexts;
c) meets the legal and ethical obligations and ensure compliance with relevant professional codes of conduct;
d) ensures that the staff are operating in a competent and safe manner within their scope of practice 
e) provides appropriate clinical supervision and debriefing

Workshop Date 2025

Thursdays 20 & 27 February  1.00 - 3.30pmOptional Q&A Session 27 March 1.00 - 3.00pm

Using ethical dilemmas, real life scenarios participants will collectively workshop what systems, policies and procedures and workforce competency is required to provide an optimal and safe response. The identified solutions will then be codified and applied to the either exisiting or new policies and procedures based on the organisation specific context; e.g educational institution, social service agency.  Suicide postvention and suicide contagion management will also be covered.
Drawing on the presenter's experiencing on assisting coroners, participants will undertake an exercise where a coronial investigation lens will be applied to a death by suicide scenario.

Topics covered: 

Legal and ethical obligations in suicide
Clinical Governance
Workforce Development and Scope of Practice
Staff Supervision and Debriefing
Agency Policies and Procedures
Referral Pathways
Postvention Policies and Procedures

Working with a client who is suicidal can create a certain level of anxiety, personal responsibility or even be burdensome. These reactions which are not uncommon, can be viewed as very reasonable human responses to the dynamics when engaging with the client's suicidality. Added to this are the legal and ethical obligations which regulate different professional codes of practice. 
Previous workshops' discussion and issues raised in supervision and debriefing indicate that for many professionals there is often an unspoken fear is that if a client was to suicide, would a coronial investigation find the professional's practice wanting or even negligent.

This workshop lifts the lid and encourages a frank and honest discussion of both the spoken and unspoken issues that professionals experience when working with a suicidal client. It unpacks all of these issues and examines how these reactions and fears can influence the response to the suicidality.

Topics include:

Legal and ethical obligations for suicide and their implications in therapeutic and support settings
Suicide knowledge and competency expectations in scope of practice
Duty of Care in the context Suicide prevention and intervention
When does duty of care finish?
Confidentiality and the Privacy Act
Referral Pathways

The workshop does a deep dive into the underlying theory that informs the legal and ethical obligations pertaining to the prevention of suicide. It clarifies what is considered reasonable and safe within the professional's scope of practice.
The workshop provides participants the opportunity to update their knowldege and to reflect on the implications that these obligations have on their practice. This is achieved by processing the information with the other participants in small group discussions and excercises.

Custodians of Hope: Supporting the suicidal person Workshop.  

This workshop's content was previously covered in the Custodians of Hope: Supporting the suicidal person workshop.  The feedback from participants was that the topics were extremely valuable and worthy of a stand alone workshop to allow for more considered discussion.  Participants enrolling in either the Confident & Competent Suicide Prevention Training Series or Custodians of Hope: Supporting the suicidal person workshop would benefit from also attending this workshop.

Workshop Date 2025

The impact of suicide on family and communities including faith communities can be devastating. So how do faith communities respond when suicide comes to church. This response is not only in providing pastoral care to those bereaved by suicide but also to those experiencing mental illness, psychological distress, trauma or suicidality. 

Studies have shown the 85% of clergy know that helping people in a suicide crisis is part of their responsibility, but they don’t know what to do. When faced with engaging with someone they are worried about, it is essential that faith leaders ensure that their pastoral counselling skills includes knowledge and skills to identify someone in an emerging suicide crisis and to competently respond to the crisis.

From a suicide prevention standpoint, faith communities can foster compassion and support for people who are experiencing hardship, and can use theological reflection to help people make meaning, especially understanding of suffering and despair.

Faith community leaders are often first responders after a suicide death. How they support an often highly traumatised and confused family through their grief journey or conduct a funeral service can have an enduring impact on the recovery of those bereaved. While many families experience compassionate and supportive pastoral care, others have a sense of compounded shame and guilt resulting in experiencing additional layers of unresolved grief because of how faith leaders have spoken about the suicide.

The primary focus of the workshop is to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of:

latest research and considered thinking about the phenomenon of suicide
the thought process of the suicidal person leading up to and at the moment of suicide
the underlying reasons and situations that precipitate suicide
risk and protective factors in suicide
how to engage and support a suicidal person.

Topics include:

Overview of suicide and the “suicidal moment”
Suicide risk and protective factors
Suicide and religion: Risk or protective?
Salvation or damnation: the implications of theological & dogmatic teachings about suicide on pastoral care approaches
Common Language: the intersection of faith and wellbeing
Institution and clergy abuse associated suicide
Working with the suicidal person in a pastoral care context

Webinars
(Unable to attend a webinar?  Webinars are recorded so can be viewed at a time suitable to you)

Webinar 1:  Supporting those bereaved by suicide
Date:  Monday 2 September 9:30 - 11:30 am
People bereaved by suicide experience higher levels of depression and trauma and there are  grief issues specific to suicide bereavement.  Ministry to those bereaved is enhanced from an in-depth- understanding of suicide grief and trauma and best practices in safe and effective support. Suicide can greatly strain or even shatter bereaved people’s faith and anger at God is not uncommon. Topics covered:

Answering the question of why?
Suicide related grief
Ministry and support for those bereaved by suicide
Impact of suicide on a faith community

Training Series Description This faith communities focused suicide prevention training consists of a one day in-person workshop and 2 x two-hour online webinars 

It is specifically designed for those who provide pastoral ministries such as clergy, chaplains, lay preachers, youth ministers, and pastoral care workers.

An opportunity for participants to: 

reflect on suicide from their faith perspective 
identify how faith and spirituality can contribute to positive mental wellbeing of those they minister to 
address mental illness, trauma and suicidality in their pastoral care work
depth their understanding of how funeral rites impact on suicide contagion and grief process of those bereaved by suicide

All the topics covered will be approached from the perspective of ministry and pastoral care contexts. Boundaries between pastoral care and counselling approaches and discerning if the person would benefit from professional care by a therapist or mental health clinician will also be discussed.
By having a depth of understanding about suicide, insights about the suffering and despair of the suicidal person, and the impact of suicide on those bereaved, those in ministry will be better equipped to accompany suicidal people or those bereaved by suicide through prayer, discernment and pastoral care. The implications and impact of past and current theological and dogmatic teachings on suicide needs to be taken into consideration. Suicide is not value free and has religious, moral and ethical dimensions. Throughout the day participants will be encouraged to reflect on these dimension and their personal values and faith beliefs about suicide.
The sensitive issue of suicide among victims of institutional or clergy abuse and its impact of families and faith communities will also be covered.
Faith and spirituality contributes to a person's wellbeing and faith community can play an important role in promoting positive wellbeing of it's members. Embracing ministry to the whole person, the concept of the "well parish" will be introduced. Ways that churches can contribute to community-based suicide prevention initiatives will be examined.

Webinar 2: Honouring Not GlorifyingDate:  Monday 23 September: 9:30 - 11:30amWebinar 2 focuses on conducting a funeral of someone who has died by suicide. With the increasing number of people dying by suicide, especially  young people, there is concern that symbolic actions or what is said in a tangihanga or a funeral may inadvertently glorify suicide, leading to further suicides. Those conducting suicide funerals are often faced with dilemmas, such as;  do you talk about the person's suicide; if so how should it be talked about and how much should be disclosed; what about privacy of whānau and the dead person.  Participants will have the opportunity to bring up their own questions or dilemmas for discussion as well as explore the potential tension between ensuring that the ritual or the cultural practices honour the person without glorifying the way the person died.  Topics covered:

The role of ritual in bereavement support
Issues of concern in death by suicide funerals
Mitigating the risk of suicide contagion
Honouring Not Glorifying: Walking the fine line of difference 
Role of tangihanga or funerals in community debriefing
Helpful & unhelpful messages when speaking about suicide in funeral or tangihanga

Location	Date	Location	Date
Auckland	10 April	Christchurch	21 May
Dunedin	25 September	Online	10, 17 & 24 May
Wellington	11 April	Whangārei	11 September

Location	Date	Location	Date
Auckland	15 August	Christchurch	19 August
Dunedin	22 August	Hamilton	14 August
Invercargill	20 August	Napier	28 August
Wellington	13 August

Suicide Prevention Workshops

Policies and Proceedures

Legal and Ethical

Reflecting on and Processing Suicide in Supervision: An online course for counselling / clinical supervisors

Responding to suicide in school pastoral care settings: An online workshop series for Deans

The Suicide Responsive Agency: An online workshop series for management

When Someone Mentions Suicide: An exploration of the legal and ethical obligations when responding to suicide in therapeutic or support settings

When Suicide Comes to Church: Pastoral care approaches in working with suicidal people and those bereaved by suicide

For Suicide Prevention & Mental Wellbeing Training. Mentoring or Poilcy Advice

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