Training Institute for Suicide Assessment & Clinical Interviewing (TISA) New London, NH, USA
Helping a person being served to feel safe enough to share their suicidal ideation, planning, and intent is one of the most challenging and important of all clinical tasks. It is not an exaggeration to say that success in this delicate task of engagement is sometimes the difference between life and death. To this end, noted suicidologist and clinical interviewing innovator, Shawn Christopher Shea, M.D., returns with an updated introduction to the interviewing strategy for sensitively uncovering suicidal ideation, planning, actions, and intent known as the Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE Approach). Participants will learn to effectively utilize interviewing techniques that are applicable in all clinical settings from community mental health centers and crisis lines to college counseling centers, private practices, emergency rooms, and inpatient units.
In Part I of the 4-hour course, seven interviewing techniques for enhancing validity - Shame Attenuation, Normalization, the Behavioral Incident, Gentle Assumption, Denial of the Specific, the Catch-All Question, and Symptom Amplification - will be illustrated via video. Participants will learn how to utilize these interviewing innovations to raise and effectively explore the type of sensitive and taboo material that often trigger suicide including: intimate partner violence, child and elder abuse, problematic alcohol/drug use, antisocial behavior, and incest.
In Part II of the 4-hour course, Shea discusses and demonstrates with videos how these seven Validity Techniques are artfully woven into the Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE Approach). Course participants will learn how to sensitively screen for suicidal ideation and - if present - to flexibly and conversationally gather detailed information related to the suicidal ideation of the person being served including a potentially hidden method of choice for suicide (MOC), extent of actions taken using their MOC, and immediate intentions to use their MOC to proceed with suicide.
Unlike semi-structured interview formats, clinicians never use cue sheets - or record information - while asking the questions used in the CASE Approach. Consequently, the clinician can utilize 100% of their attention for engaging the interviewee while carefully watching for subtle nonverbal indicators that the person being served may be distorting or withholding information, an advantage of critical - sometimes life-saving - importance. In addition to the United States and Canada - the CASE Approach has been implemented in countries across the world including Australia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and the Netherlands. Its multi-cultural applicability is reflected by it having been translated into Spanish, French, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese.
Learning Objectives:
Understand and be able to describe the distinctive challenges of helping people at immediate risk of suicide (next 24-hours after interview) and imminent risk (week following interview).
Recognize and be able to utilize seven interviewing techniques for uncovering sensitive and taboo material: Normalization, Shame Attenuation, the Behavioral Incident, Gentle Assumption, Denial of the Specific, the Catch-All Question, and Symptom Amplification for improving the validity of elicited suicidal ideation and optimizing engagement.
Understand the theory and be able to flexibly utilize elements of the Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events (CASE Approach) to sensitively and rapidly uncover suicidal ideation, planning, actions, and intent in a hectic clinical setting.
