Elder Suicide Prevention Training

One caring person with the right information could have the potential to save someone’s life.

CHD Hawthorn Elder Care is now providing free trainings in the community on suicide prevention for elders. L.I.F.E., Living is for the Elderly, is funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and seeks to educate elder care providers, caregivers, and elders themselves. In order to allow for optimal participant interaction, we maintain a small group training approach with a maximum of 12-15 individuals per session.

Our lead trainer is Dr. Kerry Morrison, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist in private practice who previously served as an Elder Service Specialist with the Department of Mental Health. Currently, Dr. Morrison is the Program Director and Lead Trainer of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Grant for Suicide Prevention at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Dr. Morrison is a suicidologist who is a QPR Trainer. In addition, she has trained with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. and has experience in conducting post-interventional and other debriefings around critical community events.

This experiential training model allows individuals to participate in realistic training exercises such as personalizing crisis, responding to an individual at risk or in crisis, and role play situations that one may encounter with older adults. The ability to build rapport with a person in crisis has been shown to be critical to the success of an intervention. This training emphasizes reducing anxiety in responding and increasing the ability to build rapport with an elder in distress.

Core Components of the Training:
  • Modes of Response
  • Knowledge of available resources in the community
  • Rapport building exercises
  • Myths
  • Statistics from latest research
  • The ability to practice newly acquired skills

For more information about the training please contact Janet Simeone at (413) 592-5199 or email at jsimeone@hawthornservices.org.