Join our FREE Suicide Prevention Psychotherapist Register

Do you deliver evidence based psychological treatments for suicide and suicide related behaviours?

Are you experienced in offering counselling or psychotherapy to people that are bereaved by suicide?

We would love to hear from you!

SRAA offer a free service to connect clients (and families) in need of evidence based treatment, with clinicians that have the training and experience.

Specifically, we are seeking your support in joining our register of clinicians delivering direct suicide prevention therapies;

• Suicide Prevention – Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (SP-CBT)
• Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS), or
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

We are also seeking clinicians that have experience and qualifications in grief and loss, suicide bereavement and intervention.

We have had a significant increase in the requests for referral to clinicians that are experienced in working with people reporting suicidality.

It is completely free and is purely a service to support community members and clinicians that make contact with SRAA. There are no endorsements, incentives or catches.

SRAA continue to be asked for referral options for clients experiencing suicidality and self injury across Australia and New Zealand. While some internet based search options to “Find a… [practitioner]” may indicate working with “suicide”, they often lack clarity on whether they have been trained in an evidence based suicide prevention specific psychotherapy.

Please download the SP Register EOI form here and send it to admin@suicideriskassessment.com.au or complete the online form below.

EOI Suicide Prevention Psychotherapist Register

• Name (First, Last)*
• Practice Name
• Practice Address*
  Please detail address, including state or territory.
• Website
• Email*
• Contact telephone number:*
• Qualifications*
• AHPRA Registration/Memberships/Endorsements:*
• List whether you have specific training in grief, loss and bereavement:
• List whether you have training in DBT, SP-CBT or CAMS:
• Please check the availability of the following with your service:
  • Telehealth
  • Medicare rebates
  • Health fund rebates
• Consent*
  I agree to be included in the SRAA Suicide Prevention Psychotherapist Register
  In providing this submission, you confirm your understanding that the details are to be used for a free 'warm connection service' offered by Suicide Risk Assessment Australia (SRAA) between people requesting suicide related support to appropriately qualified practitioners who are skilled and capable to deliver evidence based suicide prevention psychotherapy and/or bereavement services.
  You also confirm your understanding that SRAA are not endorsing you professionally as a suicide prevention expert and do not make recommendations on your suitability as a practitioner for any given individual.
  You also confirm your understanding that you must meet the training and qualifications standards for inclusion in this register.
  In addition to being able to identify a practitioner in their area meeting the above standards, an information page on how to choose a practitioner, Medicare entitlements and details about DBT, CAMS and SP-CBT treatment modalities, in addition to bereavement support options.
  SRAA receive no funding or financial incentives for this service which is offered freely to all.
• Security Question*

Submit

What’s the difference between ‘Direct’ and ‘Indirect’ therapy, when it comes to suicide interventions?

‘Direct’ treatment approaches to suicidality describe psychotherapy that focuses directly on a person’s desire for death, suicidal ideation and behaviours, working with them to learn strategies to cope with those thoughts and behaviours. ‘Indirect’ treatment works to target reductions in the distress that may co-exist with suicidality, that is, delivering treatment for depression, anxiety, pain or hopelessness, with the view for example, that reductions in depressive symptoms correlates with reductions in suicidality. Evidence has demonstrated that safety from suicide is only reliably achieved in the immediate term, when suicidality was directly targeted (Meerwijk, et al., 2016).  Indirect therapies were found to offer benefit only in the longer term, with 1.5 times greater potential for death by suicide in the immediate term when compared with those receiving ‘direct’ treatment methodologies.

(Meerwijk, et al., 2016)

Based on these findings, it is therefore strongly advocated for the direct treatment of suicidality, in the first instance. Of course, for Australian’s in areas or contexts where access to clinicians trained in Direct therapies is limited, any evidence-based treatment is better than no treatment at all.

There are three psychotherapies endorsed as evidence-based therapies for the direct treatment of suicidality in adults, having undergone the rigors of randomised controlled trails.

• Cognitive Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CT-SP) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CBT-SP), utilises the same principles as general CBT, however, ensures treatment addresses cognitions and behaviours associated with suicidality (Brown, et al., 2005; Bryan, 2019). CBT-SP is also noted to incorporate brief interventions, ensuring minimum standards of care (Bryan, 2019).
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) was previously synonymous with treatment for people with Borderline Personality Disorder, however, more recently DBT has demonstrated efficacy across multiple presentations and difficulties (Swales, 2018). DBT is evidenced to stabilise suicidal and self injurious behaviours (Panos, Jackson, Hasan and Panos, 2014).
• Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) is not widely known within Australia. It is a nondenominational model of psychotherapy, engaging the person to identify factors ‘driving’ suicidality through “empathy, collaboration and honesty” (Jobes, Piehl & Chalker, 2018).

Although other psychotherapies have been trialled for efficacy in treating suicidality, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, research of sufficient methodological rigour is yet to demonstrate whether this is an appropriate treatment approach (Calati & Courtet, 2016).

References
Brown, G., Have, T., Henriques, G., Xie, S., Hollander, J. Beck, A. (2005). Cognitive Therapy for the prevention of suicide attempts, Journal of the American Medical Association, 294(5), 563-570
Bryan, C. (2019). Cognitive behavioural therapy for suicide prevention (CBT-SP): Implications for meeting standard of care expectations with suicidal patients, Behavioural Sciences and the Law, 37(3), 247-258
Calati, R. & Courtet, P. (2016). Is psychotherapy effective for reducing suicide attempt and non-suicidal self-injury rates? Meta-analysis and meta-regression of literature data, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 79, 8 – 20
Jobes, D., Piehl, B. & Chalker, S. (2018). A collaborative approach to working with the suicidal mind, In M. Pompili (Ed.) Phenomenology of Suicide: Unlocking the Suicidal Mind, pp.187 – 201
Meerwijk, E., Parekh, A., Oquendo, M., Allen, E., Franck, L. & Lee, K. (2016). Direct versus indirect psychosocial and behavioural interventions to prevent suicide and suicide attempts: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry, 3, 544-554
Panos, P., Jackson, J., Hasan, O. & Panos, A (2014). Meta-analysis and systematic review assessing the efficacy of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Research on Social Work Practice, 24(2), 213 – 223
Swales, M. (Ed.). (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/97801980198758723.001.0001