This interactive program is for both non-clinical and clinical social workers who work with individuals at risk for suicide. Using case studies and small group discussion, the standards of suicide care will be taught with an emphasis on enhancing practice skills and providing tools to prevent malpractice related to suicide risk assessment. Program participants will gain an understanding of best practice assessment, crisis-intervention and documentation with clients across the life span. During registration you will have the option to add on 3 New Jersey Ethics Continuing Education Credits for $15.
Provisional data from 2022 show that 49,449 individuals died by suicide in the United States (Curtin et al, 2023); with higher rates per 100,000 for anyone 35 or older compared to 2021. Social workers provide the majority of direct clinical mental health services in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024); thus, they are likely to interact with clients who are at-risk for suicide or are actively suicidal. Fear of malpractice may lead to defensive practices within mental health through the overuse of inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations, medications, or denying access to care through referral. Skip Simpson, a leading attorney, states “Mental health providers are not expected to be mindreaders or miracle workers, with unlimited control over the behaviors of their patients. But they are expected to be competent and to meet or exceed the standard of care” (Jobes, n.d., para 9). The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (2018) provide guidelines for standards of care for suicide including: completing screening, formal assessment, as indicated; completing a collaborative safety plan; assessing for access to lethal means; documentation; and, follow up. Additional standards to protect against malpractice include assessment and documentation of foreseeability, reasonable care, and decision making used in clinical response including steps taken and those considered but decided against taking.
Using standards established by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (2018) and current literature, the workshop will include lecture, case studies and small group discussion to demonstrate best practice standards for assessment, crisis-intervention and documentation when working with multi-cultural clients, across the life span, who are either at-risk for or currently suicidal. Participants will leave the workshop knowing the best practice standards of care for suicide to enhance their practice while protecting against malpractice related to suicide risk assessment, management, and crisis-intervention.
Learning Objectives
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 Time: 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. Location: Zoom Requirements: Webcam (participants must be on camera) Presenters: Maureen Underwood, L.C.S.W. and Michelle Scott, Ph.D., M.S.W. CEUs: 3 NJSW Ethics Continuing Education Credits (+$15) Social Work CEUs—Provided by the Monmouth University School of Social Work Professional Education Program (PEP) and recognized by the New Jersey Board of Social Work Examiners. Participants must be present for the entire event to receive social work CEUs. No exceptions.
Maureen Underwood, LCSW, has been a social worker in the field of suicide assessment and prevention for over 40 years. She is nationally recognized in the field of youth suicide prevention, with focus on schools and best-practice programs that enhance overall student outcomes. She is lead author of LIFELINES: A Suicide Prevention Program, LIFELINES Postvention and LIFELINES Intervention, Hazelden publications. Since 1987, Underwood has been engaged in addressing cluster suicide among youth populations across the United States. She was the director of the NJ Adolescent Suicide Prevention Project (2006-2016). She served as the Clinical Director of the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, Freehold, New Jersey where she developed a two-hour online suicide prevention training which has over 1 million views by school teachers, staff and administrators across the country.
She has created numerous other trauma-informed and clinical programs for youth and published extensively on these and other related topics. Underwood was been a writer for the Association of Social Work Boards clinical certification exam for the past 5 years. She has trained clinicians nationally on standards of care for risk assessment, served as an expert witness in malpractice claims against social workers related to standards of care. Currently, she is co-chair for the NASW Standards of Care for Suicide Taskforce.
Michelle Scott, MSW, Ph.D. (School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley) is a Professor and Director of the SRF Suicide Prevention Research and Training Project in the School of Social Work at Monmouth University. Her research focuses on suicide prevention of youth and first responders including evaluations of school-based screening for suicide-risk (i.e., evaluating the Columbia Suicide Screen, the original measure used in Columbia University: Teen Screen), suicide prevention programs, crisis team training, the transportability of evidence-based treatment to social work practice, and improving best practice for suicide and malpractice prevention among social workers
She is co-author of the Lifelines Prevention 11th and 12th grade curriculum and Lifelines Intervention: Helping Students at Risk for Suicide, a whole school approach to suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. Dr. Scott served on New Jersey's Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Council (2010-2022) and the Child Fatality Review- Suicide Subcommittee (2016-present). Currently, she is the program evaluator for New Jersey’s Garrett Lee Smith Suicide (GLS) Prevention Initiative and assisted in the development of the PreventSuicideNJ portal of suicide prevention resources and trainings. She has also led GLS evaluation efforts for New York and Arkansas; and, has been the principal investigator for two Monmouth University GLS campus grants. Dr. Scott currently serves as a co-chair of the NASW Standards of Care for Suicide Taskforce.
Price:
$50.00