Counseling on Access to Lethal Means

About the Course

Thoughts of suicide and the impulse to die can escalate quickly, but they often fade and may never arise again. This course teaches mental health professionals and healthcare providers about lethal means counseling, which helps ensure that clients can make it through suicidal crises alive and access the support they need. Counseling on Access to Lethal Means starts by discussing statistical trends in suicide rates in the United States, why it makes a difference to reduce access to lethal means, and the lethality of various methods of suicide. Then, the course covers the basics of lethal means counseling, how to discuss safe storage of firearms and medications with clients, and other tips for staying safe during a suicidal crisis. The course finishes with a series of case studies demonstrating counseling on access to lethal means in action. Throughout its three modules, Counseling on Access to Lethal Means uses a selection of learning tools such as live filmed role plays, instructive animations, and interactive assessments. With the support of subject matter experts, printable resources, and supplemental videos, Counseling on Access to Lethal Means will prove an invaluable asset to your practice.

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Course Overview

  • Estimated Course Length:  2 hrs. and 27 mins.
  • CE Credits: 2.25 continuing education/contact hours for social workers, psychologists, physicians, and nurses / 1.50 continuing education hours for counselors and marriage and family therapists
  • Course Includes: 3 modules consisting of a mixed media approach with roleplays, video interviews with subject matter experts, animation explainer videos, knowledge games and more 
  • Refresher Videos: 8 provider videos to highlight key concepts
  • Supplementary PDFs: 10 downloadable PDFs expanding on relevant course topics
  • Target Audience: Mental Health Practitioners (licensed professional counselors, licensed clinical social workers, licensed psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, behavioral health nurses); Physicians; Nurses
  • Level of Instruction: Advanced
  • Prerequisite: None
  • Instructional Method: Self-paced, interactive, hybrid of audio, text, video, and learning checks 
  • Accessibility Accommodations: Closed captioning of all audio and video components. In order to request further accessibility accommodations, please email support@psychhub.com.
  • Completion Requirements: To obtain your CE certificate, you must progress through all course segments, complete a participant evaluation, and obtain a score of 80% or higher on a post test quiz. Learners are expected to complete the quiz within 3 attempts. If unable to do so, the learner will need to re-review the course segments.
  • Financial/Commercial Support Statement: This course has no commercial support.
  • Conflict of Interest: This course has no potential conflict of interest or outside commercial support. Psych Hub's conflict of interest statement is found in the footer of the training center.
  • Grievance and Refund Policies: Grievance and refund policies are found in the footer of the training center.
  • Participation Costs: The cost to participate in this CE activity is included in the subscription registration fee.

Learning Objectives

Course Objectives

What the learner should be able to describe and employ upon course completion:

  1. Summarize the relationship between reducing access to lethal means and lowered mortality rates.

  2. Compare the effects of helpful versus unhelpful language when talking about firearms with an at-risk client.

  3. Describe the use of evidence based communication techniques in session to help at-risk clients reduce their access to lethal means.

Course Outline

Since the course is interactive and each learner will proceed at their own pace, timing is not exact. These are approximations based on average pre/post-test time of pilot testers as well as the run-time of course videos and voiceover. This course does not have to be completed in one session.

Course Activities for CE Credit (≥ 1 hour 40 minutes)

● Pre-Course Assessment (~10 minutes) [EXCLUDED FROM ACTIVITIES FOR NBCC CREDIT]

● Module 1: Why Means Matter (20+ minutes)

● Module 2: CALM Basics and Filmed Clinical Sessions (47+ minutes)

● Module 3: Virtual Role-Plays (6+ minutes)

● Post-Course Assessment (~17 minutes) [EXCLUDED FROM ACTIVITIES FOR NBCC CREDIT]

Course Activities NOT for CE Credit

● Participant Evaluation (5-10 minutes)

● (OPTIONAL) Supplementary Video Review

 

CE Information


American Psychological Association (APA)

Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)

Social workers completing this course receive 2.25 clinical continuing education credits.

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)

National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)

Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)

American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)

Certificate of Completion

Training hours: {course_duration}

New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work (NYSED-SW)

National Association of Social Workers - New Jersey (NASW-NJ)

Approval #: 10022024-236, CE Approval Collaborative Approval Period: through August 31, 2026. Social workers will receive 2.25 non-clinical continuing education hours for participating in this course.

New York State Education Department - Licensed Mental Health Counselors (NYSED-LMHC)

New York State Education Department - Marriage & Family Therapists (NYSED-MFT)

New York State Education Department - Psychology (NYSED-PSY)

Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling

Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board

Experts


Catherine Barber, MPA

Elaine Frank, MHS