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Pre-professional Suicide Training for Counselors: Results of a Readiness Assessment

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Abstract

Change is needed in mental health pre-professional suicide training (PPST) to address updates in practice, ethical/legal, and accreditation guidelines. Assessing readiness for change can inform successful, lasting change. The Community Readiness Model offered an established structure for research team analysis of interviews with educators, administrators, and supervisors representing diverse, accredited counselor training programs. An overall score of 4.9 out of 9 indicates the counselor education and supervision (CES) profession is in the preplanning stage of readiness to address PPST. Readiness dimensional subscores ranged from 3.6 to 6.6, which align with readiness stages from vague awareness to initiation. CES needs to increase readiness to improve PPST regarding logistical support, knowledge of existing training, active leadership support, and the attitudinal environment toward suicide and PPST. This assessment informs the work of training program administrators, state and national policymakers, educators, and supervisors to improve PPST for future counselors.

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This research was supported in part by a grant from the University of Colorado Denver Association of Lecturers and Instructors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, USA

    Jenny L. Cureton, Elysia V. Clemens & Connie Couch

  2. University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Jenny L. Cureton

  3. Counselor Education and Supervision, Kent State University, White Hall 310, PO Box 5190, Kent, OH, 44242-0001, USA

    Jenny L. Cureton

  4. Adams State University, Alamosa, CO, USA

    Janessa Henninger

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  1. Jenny L. Cureton
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Correspondence to Jenny L. Cureton.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Cureton, J.L., Clemens, E.V., Henninger, J. et al. Pre-professional Suicide Training for Counselors: Results of a Readiness Assessment. Int J Ment Health Addiction 18, 27–40 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-9898-4

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