Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

Reach out to the family. Offer to accompany your principal to the home. Express sympathy and offer support. Identify the victim’s siblings and friends who may need assistance. Discuss the school’s postvention response. Identify details about the death that could be shared with outsiders. Discuss funeral arrangements and whether the family wants school personnel or students to attend. Communicate directly to parents and students, balancing the family’s wishes for privacy and needs of the students (see FAQ 3). Utilize the After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools (2nd ed.) for templates of statements for parents and students and share with your principal. Next Steps Triage staff first and notify them in person, if possible. Allow grieving staff to be relieved from the classroom. Conduct a faculty planning session to review the referral process and staff role in postvention. Remind staff that how they respond has great impact on potential traumatization, particularly in young children. Share resources for students who need additional support. Share crisis hotline information via the school’s social media page and send out information about safe messaging via the commonly used social media sites directly to adolescents. Post relevant support information, such as text line or crisis hotline numbers in visible locations for students and staff. Conduct educational/psychological sessions (see FAQ 4). Avoid large assemblies or large groups (See Toolkit, p. 30) where students cannot ask questions or be easily monitored for their reactions (see FAQ 5). Provide support to students in small groups or in classrooms. Share facts, dispel rumors, allow students to share and then normalize a wide range of reactions, and look for students who may be showing signs that they are significantly impacted. Identify and screen students for suicidal ideation /behavior. Conduct primary screening and triage students utilizing three factors: those physically proximal to the event, those emotionally proximal, and those with preexisting vulnerabilities. Train or refamiliarize faculty members, parents, and students on how to recognize warning signs and identify support services. Have mental health providers screen for suicidal ideation behavior. Conduct secondary screening with students who may present an elevated risk for suicidal behavior or have been affected by the suicide to determine if interventions are necessary. Some exposed students will have sufficient ability to cope with loss. Notify parents/guardians of those assessed with suicidal risk and recommend community-based mental health services as needed. Coordinate with community providers with appropriate signed releases to do so. Assess high-risk students for suicidal ideation or behavior. “All school mental health professionals have the ethical and practical responsibility to conduct suicide risk assessment” (Singer, Erbacher, & Rosen, 2018, p. 8). Suicide risk assessment is an essential role of the school psychologist in suicide intervention and requires specialized training (Lieberman et al., 2014). Risk assessment includes: identifying suicidal ideation, intent, and plan; assessing for risk and protective factors; assessing for access to lethal means and experience with self- injury to address habituation to pain; and creating a risk formulation. Many districts that we have consulted with have utilized the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale for assessment. Provide individual and group counseling to affected peers. Provide or refer students for individual counseling. This can include school-based counseling, safety planning, or referral to community agencies or mental health practitioners for treatment. Safety planning should include triggers, warning signs, thoughts, moods, coping strategies, agreement to remove access to means, and steps to take for help in a crisis. Parents should be involved in safety planning (Singer et al., 2018). Provide for students reentering from hospitalization (see FAQ 6). Florida S.T.E.P.S.