Suicide assessment, prevention, intervention, and management is a topic relevant to all health care providers. Research shows that most people who kill themselves have a diagnosable mental or substance use disorder, or both, and that the majority of them have depressive illness. This course discusses prevalence, risk factors, screening, assessment, safety planning, treatment, and management. Topics include a clinical practice guideline for the assessment and management of patients at risk for suicide, co-occurring mental and substance use disorders, suicide in the military, suicide risk in children, suicide crisis intervention strategies, and ethical considerations in the assessment and management of suicide risk.

Course Outline:

Part 1: Suicide Facts

Part 2: Suicide Assessment and Management – VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline

Part 3: Co-Occurring Mental and Substance Use Disorders and Suicidal Behavior

Part 4: Safety Planning

Part 5: Documentation of Assessment and Treatment

Part 6: A Cognitive-behavioral Strategy for Preventing Suicide

Part 7: Additional Reading

Part 8: Screening and Assessment Tools

Part 9: Resources 

This course fulfills the BOP-CA suicide requirement for psychologists for six (6) hours of coursework or applied experience in suicide assessment and intervention.

This course also meets the requirements for some mental health professionals in Kentucky. Kentucky Psychologists: This course is specifically mapped to meet your 6-hour mandate. See the compliance mapping here.

NAADAC Online CE Completion limits: There is a limit of 8 hours (8 CE) of credit for online courses within a 24-hour period.

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The course will be available in your account immediately after purchase. The Course Completion Certificate and Letter of Completion will be immediately available in your account upon successful completion of the course post-test (a score of 80% or higher) and completion of the course evaluation. You will have unlimited attempts to pass the post-test.

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NAADAC – The Association for Addiction Professionals

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Page last modified or reviewed by athealth.com on Apr 28, 2026.

Editors:

John L. (Jack) Miller, MD: Dr. Miller is the past President and CEO of At Health, Inc. He graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed residencies in pediatrics and adult psychiatry, as well as a fellowship in child psychiatry. He practiced adult and adolescent psychiatry in Bellevue, WA, and later joined the TRICARE Northwest Lead Agency at Madigan Army Medical Center as the Mental Health Director. At Madigan Dr. Miller also served as the Mental Health Disease Management Chief in the Outcomes Management Division and the Health Information Management Director of the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office. He later joined the Behavioral Health Data Portal (BHDP) Program Management Office as a clinical subject matter expert to provide technical and clinical oversight for the redesign, development, pilot testing, and deployment of the Behavioral Health Data Portal (BHDP) to more than fifty of the Army's mental health clinics. As a member of the Behavioral Health Data Portal (BHDP) team, Dr. Miller shared in the Excellence in Enterprise Information Award from the Association for Enterprise Information as the Government Awardee for 2013.  John Miller CV.

Julie Shafer, PhD: Dr. Shafer is the Director of Continuing Education for At Health. See Dr. Shafer's CV.

Jill Michaels: Jill is the CE Coordinator for At Health. See Jill's CV.

Authors:

Suicide Assessment and Management - VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs & U.S. Department of Defense. (2013). VA/DoD clinical practice guideline for assessment and management of patients at risk for suicide. Washington, DC: Author. List of contributors available at https://www.healthquality.va.gov/guidelines/MH/srb/VADODCP_SuicideRisk_Full.pdf

Co-Occurring Mental and Substance Use Disorders and Suicidal Behavior:

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Addressing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Substance Abuse Treatment. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2009. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 50.) Part 3, Section 1, Addressing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Substance Abuse Treatment: A Review of the Literature. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64013/

Chair, Part 1 and Part 2 Consensus Panels

Kenneth R. Conner, PsyD., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
University of Rochester Medical Center
Rochester, New York

Safety Planning

U.S. Air Force Medical Operations Agency. (2014). Air Force guide for suicide risk assessment, management, and treatment. San Antonio, TX: Author. List of contributors available at https://www.usuhs.edu/sites/default/files/media/mps/pdf/mholloway-afguidesuiciderisk.pdf

Documentation of Assessment/Treatment Plan

U.S. Air Force Medical Operations Agency. (2014). Air Force guide for suicide risk assessment, management, and treatment. San Antonio, TX: Author. List of contributors available at https://www.usuhs.edu/sites/default/files/media/mps/pdf/mholloway-afguidesuiciderisk.pdf

A Cognitive-behavioral Strategy for Preventing Suicide

Marjan Ghahramanlou-Holloway, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology
Department of Psychiatry
Director Laboratory for the Treatment of Suicide-Related Ideation and Behavior

Laura L. Neely, PsyD
Psychologist
Associate Director Laboratory for the Treatment of Suicide-Related Ideation and Behavior

Jennifer Tucker, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Laboratory for the Treatment of Suicide-Related Ideation and Behavior
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Bethesda, Maryland

Disclosures
Support for research on inpatient cognitive-behavioral therapy for the prevention of suicide provided to Principal Investigator, Dr. Ghahramanlou-Holloway by the Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (W81XWH-08-2-0172), Military Operational Medicine Research Program (W81XWH-11-2-0106), and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (15219).

2014. Frontline Medical Communications. All rights reserved. Current Psychiatry by FRONTLINE MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS. Reproduced with permission of FRONTLINE MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS in the format Post in a course management system via Copyright Clearance Center.

Suicide Crisis Intervention Model with 25 Practical Strategies for Implementation

Darcy Haag Granello is affiliated with The Ohio State University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Darcy Haag Granello, PhD, LPCC, Counselor Education, 448 PAES Building, 305 W. 17th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210. E-mail: [email protected]. Used with permission of AMHCA.

Understanding Suicidal Behavior in the Military

Michael D. Anestis and Thomas E. Joiner are affiliated with Florida State University. Craig J. Bryan and Michelle M. Cornette are affiliated with Wilford Hall Medical Center; Dr. Cornette is also affiliated with the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Thomas E. Joiner, Florida State University, Department of Psychology, 1107 W. Call St., Tallahassee, FL, 32306-4301. Used with permission of AMHCA

Understanding and Treating Suicidal Risk in Young Children

Abby Ridge Anderson, Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America; Grace M. Keyes, Hearts of Hope, Elk City, Oklahoma; David A. Jobes, Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America. David A. Jobes is a Chief Executive Officer and Co-owner of CAMs-care, LLC, which is a training and consultation company for the intervention described in this article.
2016. American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.
Practice Innovations Journal by American Psychological Association. Reproduced by permission of AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION - JOURNALS in the format post in a course management system via Copyright Clearance Center.

Assessing Suicide Risk in Children

Casey A. Barrio, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Counseling at the University of North Texas. Dr. Barrio's teaching areas include community counseling, multicultural counseling, diagnosis in counseling, and counseling skills. Used with permission of AMHCA.

Ethical Considerations in the Assessment and Management of Suicide Risk

Rebecca A. Bernert, PhD, Instructor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA; Laura Weiss Roberts, MD, MA, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA. Address correspondence to Rebecca A. Bernert, PhD, Stanford University, Department of Psychiatry, 401 Quarry Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304; e-mail: [email protected]. Reprinted with permission from FOCUS, (Copyright 2012). American Psychiatric Association

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