Part 2: Young Children & Suicide Prevention for Parents and Caregivers  

The Pacific Southwest MHTTC team provides the mental health and school mental health workforces with evidence-informed practices and strategies to inform their work in the field. Rates of reported suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children are rising, elevating the need for up-to-date information to ensure educators are prepared to respond in the best possible way.  Our goal is to raise awareness of STBs and provide elementary school personnel, including school leaders, classroom teachers, and trained school-based mental health staff, with critical knowledge and resources to help them recognize and assess the warning signs of STBs and share this information with parents and caregivers of children.

School and mental health providers are often in the position of imparting observations of STBs in young children to their guardians, and need adequate tools and resources to share. Our Center worked with specialists in the field to develop a guide, Our Young Children & Suicide Prevention: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers to serve as a resource for both school professionals and families of children. This resource is designed to help parents and caregivers prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), recognize the warning signs of STBs, and, when necessary, intervene early and effectively to keep their child safe. It’s intended for schools and mental health providers to distribute to caregivers.

This workshop provides tools that providers can use to resource families and caregivers to recognize, respond, and react to STBs in young children. Providers will learn how to use this tool to support parents and caregivers of the children they see in their practices. We will discuss some of the risk factors for suicide, as well as how school and mental health providers can support parents and caregivers in recognizing warning signs that a child may be considering suicide.  We will provide coaching models for ways parents can talk with children about suicide in an age-appropriate way, as well as actions to take and securing professional help if a child is in danger.

Learning objectives:

• Gain a deeper understanding of risk factors and warning signs of suicide in young children.
• Learn developmentally-appropriate ways parents and caregivers can talk with their children about suicide.
• Learn action steps parents and caregivers can take in responding to suicide risk in their children, including how to make their environments safer and connect children to professional support.

Who is this workshop for?

• Mental health and school mental health providers (e.g., therapists, social workers, peer support professionals)
• Supervisors, managers, directors, administrators, and leadership of school and mental health organizations and agencies
• Technical assistance providers, coaches, consultants