> School Resources
School Resources
The Helpline Center provides many resources for schools and communities to implement to be prepared to assist someone at risk for suicide. Suicide is a preventable public health concern. One of the ways we can prevent suicide is to engage in open conversation about it.
Helpline Center staff also provide short presentations to students to educate them about 988, mental health, and suicide prevention. There is a speaking fee and travel expenses for the presentations.
If you are interested in a presentation, please contact us at training@helplinecenter.org.
988 Mental Health Counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
A web-based training for school personnel is available online through STPS, click here for a brochure. This free, interactive series “Making Educators Partners in Suicide Prevention” is designed to be completed at the viewer’s own pace. It is open to anyone who is interested in reviewing current strategies for youth suicide prevention in schools. Visit STPS to register, the 4th course listed is specifically for those in South Dakota.
Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools is available for free download from SAMHSA. It assists school personnel in designing and implementing strategies that prevent suicide and promote behavioral health.
After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools After a Suicide: A Toolkit for Schools assists schools in implementing a coordinated response to the suicide death of a student. Originally developed in 2011, the second edition includes new information and tools that middle and high schools can use to help the school community cope and reduce suicide risk.
Highlights of the second edition include:
- Updated information on such topics as memorialization, social media, and contagion
- Updated resource lists
- A new tool to help with decision-making about memorials
- New examples of how different communities have addressed specific issues in responding to a suicide death
SPRC offers a page for high school teachers that contains information on recognizing and responding to warning signs, resource materials about suicide prevention, including programs, as well as other suicide prevention information relevant to teachers.
SPRC also offers a page for high school mental health providers that contains information on recognizing and responding to warning signs, resource materials about suicide prevention, including programs, as well as other suicide prevention information relevant to school health providers.
Teen Mental Health First Aid teaches high school students in grades 10,11, and 12 how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders among their friends and peers. The training gives students the skills to have supportive conversations with their friends and get a responsible and trusted adult to take over as necessary. It is designed to be delivered in schools or community sites in three interactive classroom sessions of 90 minutes each or six sessions of 45 minutes each.
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a universal classroom-based behavior management strategy for elementary school that teachers use along with a school’s standard instructional curricula. GBG uses a classroom-wide game format with teams and rewards to socialize children to the role of student. It aims to reduce aggressive, disruptive classroom behavior, which is a shared risk factor for later problem behaviors, including adolescent and adult illicit drug abuse, alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), violent and criminal behavior, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. (SPRC)
Lifelines: A Suicide Prevention Program is a comprehensive, whole-school suicide prevention curriculum for implementation in middle school and high school. Lifelines addresses the whole school community by providing suicide awareness resources for school administrators, faculty and staff members, parents, and students. Information about suicide and the role of students in suicide prevention is presented in easy-to-follow lessons.
This curriculum includes a program guide, a CD-ROM (which contains reproducible handouts and other resources) and two DVDs. Students participate in role-playing exercises that teach them what to do when faced with a suicidal peer. The exercises feature an emphasis on seeking adult help and frank discussions on the warning signs of suicide. In the process of teaching students how to help a friend, students who may be suicidal themselves will learn the importance of getting help as well.
A bonus DVD, called Not My Kid: What Every Parent Should Know, is also included. In this DVD, created by the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, Lifelines author Maureen Underwood and Lanny Berman, executive director for the American Association of Suicidology, answer common questions parents and caregivers have about teen suicide.
Response is a comprehensive high school based suicide prevention program designed to increase awareness, change attitudes, heighten sensitivity to depression and suicidal ideation and offer response procedures to refer a student at risk for suicide. The program is delivered as a School Kit, which includes an Implementation Manual with step-by-step instructions for busy administrators; a Student Component with four 50-minute lesson plans; and an In-Service Manual with complete instructions on delivering a 2-hour staff training.
The Student Component and In-Service Manual come with PowerPoint presentations and Suicide prevention videos (DVD’s). The program has been customized for several states including Oregon, Virginia, South Dakota, and Delaware.
Sources of Strength, listed on NREPP, is a comprehensive wellness program that works to use peer leaders to change norms around codes of silence and help seeking. The program is designed to increase help seeking behaviors and connections between peers and caring adults. Sources of Strength has a true preventative aim in building multiple sources of support around individuals so that when times get hard they have strengths to rely on.
The SOS Signs of Suicide Prevention Program (SOS) is a universal, school-based depression awareness and suicide prevention program designed for middle-school (ages 11–13) or high-school (ages 13–17) students. The goals are to 1) decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression, 2) encourage personal help-seeking and/or help-seeking on behalf of a friend, 3) reduce the stigma of mental illness and acknowledge the importance of seeking help or treatment, 4) engage parents and school staff as partners in prevention through “gatekeeper” education, and 5) encourage schools to develop community-based partnerships to support student mental health. (SPRC)
It is important for a school community to have a crisis plan in place, ideally before there is a suicide loss. This helps the school and others involved to be aware of the critical roles they play in providing resources and support and to be able to respond in an organized manner following a death by suicide or suicide attempt.
The Helpline Center provides support and guidance in the development of this plan, please reach out to us to learn more.
