Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

Resources Utilize the newly released and updated, After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools, Second Edition (2018), which is available at afsp.org and sprc.org . This resource was created in collaboration with suicide experts, school personnel, clinicians, and crisis responders, and provides guidance and tools to assist with postvention efforts in the schools that aim to provide support to students and staff and prevent additional trauma and deaths. The importance of community collaboration and partnership, well established prior to a crisis, is emphasized to enable good working relationships when necessary. Be familiar with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization. The CDC (1988) recommends the pre-selection of a suicide task force, made up of trained and experienced gatekeepers from various helping professions, to assemble when an adolescent suicide has occurred and to oversee the implementation of the community-based postvention plan. Tasks include organizing local gatekeepers who may not all be familiar with the cluster phenomenon or the postvention plan; helping professionals to review the anticipated reactions from peer survivors so that they can swiftly, uniformly, and effectively respond; creating a statement within 24 hours of the suicide to be shared with gatekeepers, schools, churches, teen organizations, and news sources in order to control what is reported and to advertise public forums and emergent resources; and frequently reconvening while the cluster remains active to discuss any new developments and to review the postvention plans. Be familiar with safe messaging guidelines and share them with media professionals. • A useful handout from Reporting on Suicide called Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide can be accessed at reportingonsuicide .org/recommendations • Media guidelines for safe messaging are available at the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) website ( save.org ). SAVE also provides recommendations for blogging on suicide ( docs.wixstatic.com /ugd/a0415f_0528cf9c81b64da2af583cbc595a abac.pdf ) Be familiar with state and local model programs and toolkits. • Montana Crisis Action School Toolkit on Suicide (Montana CAST-S , dphhs.mt.gov/Portals/85 /suicideprevention/CAST-S2017.pdf) • Heard Alliance: Toolkit for Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2017; heardalliance.org /wp-content/uploads/HEARDToolkit2017.pdf ) • National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention: Research Prioritization Task Force. (2014) A prioritized research agenda for suicide prevention: An action plan to save lives . Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health and the Research Prioritization Task Force • The California Model Youth Suicide Prevention Policy ( cde.ca.gov/ls/cg/mh/suicideprevres.asp ) Be familiar with grants to help recover from traumatic events. If your district has experienced a cluster, consider applying for Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence) short-term grants from the U.S. Department of Education. This program funds short-term and long-term education-related services for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education to help them recover from a violent or traumatic event in which the learning environment has been disrupted ( ed.gov/programs/dvppserv/index.html ). Florida S.T.E.P.S.