Drs. Carol Coohey and Miriam Landsman of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice  have published an article "Evaluation of a Suicide Counseling Skills Course for Social Work Students" in the Journal of Social Work Education.

Social work students often lack adequate training to effectively intervene with clients considering suicide. Coohey and Landsman describe integrating suicide counseling skills development into a course and evaluate whether it improves students’ skills and confidence. 

 

The Suicide Counseling Skills Inventory and Suicide Counseling Confidence Scale were used to evaluate students’ skills and confidence. Postcourse data showed significant improvement in counseling skills and confidence

among students in the intervention. Their counseling skills were more like experts’ skills post-course. Given the likelihood that social workers will encounter clients contemplating suicide, all students

should be able to demonstrate basic suicide intervention skills.  The article also describes strategies to include more suicide skill-building opportunities in social work programs.

 

The article appeared in the Jan. 15, 2025 edition of the Journal of Social Work Education; see https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2024.2431560.