Speaker(s):
Presentation: Suicide represents a significant public health priority in the United States. For social workers, counselors, nurses, educators, administrators, and others who interact with those at-risk of dying by suicide, understanding how to not only prevent but to assess, refer and treat is an ethical mandate. Professionals from across multiple disciplines are driven by a “do no harm” approach; however, our training programs, systems, and professional development priorities often lack suicide prevention as a priority. This talk will provide an overview of the ethical mandates across professions and generate arguments from the literature that makes an ethical case that suicide prevention should be prioritized in training, practice, and systems.
Objectives:
- Identify ethical principles relevant to suicide prevention
- Describe the problem of suicide
- Identify strategies for upholding an ethical mandate of addressing the problem of suicide in training, practice, and systems
- Explain how to use existing Codes of Ethics, including NBCC and NASW, to inform trainings, practice and systems regarding prioritizing suicide prevention