September is national suicide prevention and awareness month, and in line with this, we wanted to share a bit about how we help keep you and your family safe while being seen at our practice. Suicide treatment is a major area of research and clinical focus for our providers. For every client, we work diligently to ensure that we are monitoring and continually assessing for safety to best support your progress. For every client, you can be assured that we will take the following steps:
A thorough suicide risk assessment is performed during every first session. For adult clients, this means that assessing for and taking steps to enhance safety is often a main focus of your initial work with your clinician. For children, it means we ask about and assess for safety in many different developmentally appropriate ways. This includes both verbal conversations and questions, as well as through observing signs in your child’s behavior. All of our clinicians have extensive experience in conducting suicide risk assessments, and you can trust that we will be both thorough and direct.
Follow-ups are always a part of treatment. Risk for suicide is not stagnant and can change in response to stressors. We check in repeatedly to ensure that all clients have what they need to face life’s challenges. We also utilize interventions at the first sign of risk, responding with treatment approaches that are well-researched and effective.
We will provide you with resources for where to seek help in the case of an emergency. This may include hospitals, crisis lines, and behavioral urgent care centers. We also provide referrals for those in need of more intensive treatment prior to working with us. We will remain by your side to support you in determining what is the best path for your or your child’s treatment and safety needs.
When working with children, we always share crucial safety information with parents as soon as possible. We take all statements regarding suicide, self-harm, and death seriously and always follow-up to ensure safety. We encourage you to always bring to our attention any concerns regarding safety so that we can help support you and work with your child on ways of expressing themselves. You will never be left in the dark regarding your child’s risk for suicide or self-harm, and we will be certain that we have a system set up to help us communicate regularly. We will also work with you on steps you can take to help keep your child safe at home.
Many individuals seek treatment because they are having distressing thoughts. Many others seek out counseling after hearing their child expressing distressing comments regarding suicide, death, or self-harm. It can be overwhelming to worry about the safety of yourself or of a child. We are here to give you the support you need to process these experiences and determine what steps are needed to feel better. For parents, often just having a professional there to consistently check in and assess for suicidal thoughts in your child can help ease your mind. Through thorough risk assessments and identifying strategies to help you child cope and help you monitor signs of distress, we work to also help reduce the occurrence of your child’s distressing thoughts.
A vital step in suicide awareness means taking your concerns seriously and seeking out help. Thoughts of suicide can feel extremely lonely, as can struggling to support a child who is having these thoughts. You do not need to handle this alone; at Snowline Counseling, we encourage you to express all of your thoughts and emotions and we promise to meet you with acceptance and support. Suicide prevention begins with asking for help and is successful when you feel there is someone in your corner who you can rely upon.