Updated September 23, 2024
15. Suicide Prevention Primary Supervisors: Adrienne Chong, Ph.D., Audrey Martinez, Ph.D., Jared Roush, Ph.D.
Program: Suicide is a major public health issue that disproportionately affects Veterans. The VA has since embraced suicide prevention as its top clinical priority. The Suicide Prevention Program (SPP) is comprised of an interdisciplinary team including psychologists, registered nurses, licensed clinical social worker, peer support specialist, and program support assistant. The Suicide Prevention Coordinators (SPCs) and Suicide Prevention Case Managers (SPCMs) act as champions for the VA’s public health approach t o suicide prevention and supports suicide prevention initiatives throughout the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. SPP is a unique program that offers support to both Veterans and clinical staff. SPP team members engage in consultation with health care providers regarding suicide risk assessment and suicide risk mitigation strategies, and they engage in chart review to assist in making determinations regarding activating High Risk for Suicide Patient Record Flags. The SPP team routinely conducts comprehensive suicide risk evaluations and may provide time-limited or single-session, evidence-based psychotherapy for suicide prevention, including safety planning and lethal means safety counseling. Additional emphases in SPP include providing postvention services to staff and family after a death by suicide, responding to referrals from the Veterans Crisis Line, education to staff on topics related to suicide prevention, and community outreach. On the Suicide Prevention rotation, trainees provide outreach, assessment, monitoring, and psychotherapy services for Veterans at high risk for suicide. The Suicide Prevention rotation offers focused training in suicide risk assessment and mitigation, evidence-based treatment for suicide prevention, and interdisciplinary collaboration in support of suicide prevention initiatives. Training opportunities will primarily occur within the Suicide Prevention Program, but there may also be opportunities to collaborate with providers from other service areas. Over the course of the training rotation, interns will learn to conduct comprehensive suicide risk assessments, safety planning, lethal means safety counseling, provide time-limited psychotherapy for patients, and gain exposure to suicide prevention process improvement efforts that occur across the facility. Psychology Training Provided: The intern on the Suicide Prevention rotation provides psychological assessment, treatment, and consultation services in SPP. Training will focus on recovery-oriented care and suicide prevention across both clinical and administrative domains.
Skills of focus include:
• Interdisciplinary team consultation, staff education, and collaboration • Learn to quickly build rapport and assess for immediate needs • Suicide risk screening and comprehensive suicide risk assessments • Suicide-specific treatments including safety planning intervention and lethal means safety counseling • Provide brief psychological services to patients, including individual and group psychotherapy • Adapt psychotherapy interventions for patients in acute distress or at high risk for suicide
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