- “Where is your friend?” “Is she alone?” “Are you with her?”
- “What did they say or do to make you worried?”
- “When was your last point of contact? How did you communicate? Text Message? Email? Phone?”
II “Go There.” Talk about the need to speak about suicide in a direct and upfront manner. Explain that we live in a society where there is a taboo on talking about suicide and that we must break the taboo. We must take the suicidal person seriously, and look at his suicidal behavior as an invitation for help.
- I like to use the scale metaphor to help callers understand that suicidal feelings are natural feelings that occur in response to stress and pain. The crisis period is the time when someone feels suicidal. I imagine a scale. On one side of the scale is pain. On the other side of the scale is support and coping skills. When pain outweighs support and coping skills, a person feels suicidal and is in their crisis period. It is key to add weight back to the support/coping skills side to help the person out of their crisis period.
III Teach the caller how to assess for suicide and to contract
IV Teach micro-counseling skills/suicide interventions
- No platitudes. Try not to be judgmental.
- Try to be supportive. (Show how and give examples of empathetic statements.)
- Teach callers to come from a place of curiosity and care
V Explain the different options available to respond to the level of risk and make an action-plan
- If the caller has hurt herself, she needs to get to the nearest hospital. Give hospital information to the caller.
- Calling the police
- Poison Control
- Wellness check
- Sausal Creek
- Mobile Crisis Unit
- Friends and Family
VI. Offer to do a conference call to connect with the person at risk. [Talk to Binh if you need clarification on these protocols.]
VII. Check in with the caller
- “How are you?” “This must be a lot for you.”
- “Do you have friends or family to support you?
- “What are you doing to take care of yourself?”
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