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)
Psych Hub is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Psych Hub maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Psychologists completing this course receive 2.25 continuing education credits.

Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
Psych Hub, #1750, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2024 – 08/20/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 2.25 clinical continuing education credits.

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
Psych Hub is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Psych Hub maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. CAMFT Approval #1000074. Course meets the qualifications for 1.50 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
Psych Hub has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7051. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Psych Hub is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education hours.

Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of AffinityCE and Psych Hub. AffinityCE is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Physicians completing this course receive 2.25 continuing education credits.

American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
Nurse CE is provided for this program through collaboration between Psych Hub and AffinityCE. AffinityCE is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation (ANCC). Nurses completing this course receive 2.25 continuing education credits.

New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work (NYSED-SW)
Psych Hub, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0699. New York State social workers completing this course receive 2.25 contact hours.

National Association of Social Workers - New Jersey (NASW-NJ)
This course is approved by the New Jersey Social Work Continuing Education Approval Collaborative, which is administered by NASW-NJ. CE Approval Collaborative Approval period through August 31, 2024. New Jersey social workers will receive 2.25 Clinical CE credits for participating in this course.
Approval #: 10022024-236 CE Credits Approved: Non Clinical

New York State Education Department - Licensed Mental Health Counselors (NYSED-LMHC)
Psych Hub, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0257. New York State licensed mental health counselors completing this course receive 2.25 contact hours.

New York State Education Department - Marriage & Family Therapists (NYSED-MFT)
Psych Hub, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0109. New York State marriage and family therapists completing this course receive 2.25 contact hours.

New York State Education Department - Psychology (NYSED-PSY)
Psych Hub, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0208. New York State licensed psychologists completing this course receive 2.25 contact hours.

Experts


Catherine Barber, MPA

Catherine Barber, MPA, has been a senior researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Research Center  for over 20 years. She led the effort to design and test the prototype for the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting  System and is the founding director of Means Matter, a project to disseminate research and interventions aimed at  reducing a suicidal person’s access to highly lethal suicide methods. A hallmark of Means Matter is bringing together  gun owners and suicide prevention groups to collaborate on local solutions. She and Elaine Frank wrote the original  CALM-Online (Counseling on Access to Lethal Means) and have adapted it for various clinical and community groups  around the country. She was a co-PI on a clinical trial of lethal means counseling with positive findings (Miller M, Salhi  C, Barber C et al., Ann Emerg Med., 2020). Her expertise is in developing injury surveillance systems and using data  from these systems to develop and test novel interventions. She is the recipient of the American Foundation for  Suicide Prevention’s Allies in Action Lifetime Achievement Award. Barber is a frequent plenary session speaker at  state and national suicide prevention and public health conferences.


Elaine Frank, MHS

Elaine Frank is an Injury Prevention and Public Health professional who has focused her recent work at the intersection of Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention. She is the co-developer of CALM – Counseling on Access to  Lethal Means – and Co-chair of the NH Firearm Safety Coalition that created the Gun Shop Project and other efforts to  engage the firearm community in preventing suicide.