Where Angels Fear to Tread: Starting the Conversation about Suicide Prevention

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Dr. Hart recently authored her second article in a series on Suicide Prevention for Educators in the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Program's (NACCTEP) Newsletter. NACCTEP is a national association which supports training and preparation of K-12 educators. The series provides early career educators the knowledge they need to both accurately identify students at-risk for attempting suicide and information on how to effectively intervene. 

Knowing how to effectively intervene once you have determined a student is at-risk for attempting suicide is crucial. Teachers need to know how to approach the student, what their legal responsibility is as a mandated reported, how that impacts their ability to maintain confidentiality for the student, and what their school's crisis policy is for working with students who are a danger to themselves. Being fully informed increases a teacher's confidence in approaching their student and navigating the process from identification to intervention.

To learn strategies on how to effectively initiate a conversation with a student you believe is at risk for harming him or herself, read Dr. Hart's article Where Angels Fear to Tread: Starting the Conversation about Suicide Prevention. To learn how to accurately identify students at-risk for attempting suicide, read Dr. Hart's first article in the series Identifying Students on the Edge: The First Step in Suicide Prevention.