News and Updates from CrisisLink

CrisisLink Strengthens Hotline Service and Community Education Programs
New training module will give hotline listeners and trainers additional skills to handle callers in crisis.

ASIST Training
"Standards define; training enables." -- LivingWorks Education, Inc.

Staff members Mary Azoy and Margaret Mathis and volunteer Crisis Hotline trainer, Michelle Flanagan-Short, joined colleagues in California last month for a week-long train-the-trainer training in the "best practices" suicide prevention training known as "ASIST" (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training). ASIST is an evidence-based training that helps people effectively recognize and intervene to prevent suicide. So far more than 750,000 individuals have been trained throughout the world. The training is a highly interactive, practical, and practice-oriented, two-day workshop.

The trip and training was paid for by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which is mandating the basic 2-day ASIST training for all staff and volunteers throughout the U.S. at the local and regional crisis centers that, like CrisisLink, actually answer the calls to this national hotline. The ASIST model incorporates the Lifeline's national standards of suicide risk assessment so hotline staff can engage a caller in a natural conversation and provide compassionate, empathic support to each caller.

CrisisLink held its first successful 2-day ASIST workshop at the end of April, with Margaret Mathis and Michelle Flanagan-Short as trainers, and Mary Azoy as a consulting trainer. 17 hotline volunteers were trained in the $300/person training, made possible by scholarships from the Lifeline and CrisisLink. All current hotline volunteers will go through this training and ASIST training will be incorporated into all future Hotline training classes.

Our sincerest thanks to this initial group of wonderful volunteers who are forging the way for everyone else! Additional 2-day ASIST trainings are scheduled for July 12-13 and January 10-11.

American Association of Suicidology Conference, Boston, MA
In April, Margaret Mathis, Lindsay Paulette-Chapman, and Mary Azoy attended the 2008 American Association for Suicidology (AAS) Conference in Boston. Hotline staff and volunteers from across the country came together to share ideas and standards for service throughout the 3-day conference. This opportunity for staff to learn from peers is essential to keeping CrisisLink at the forefront of emerging research and evidence-based best practices.

"Networking with other centers around the country is invaluable in helping us continuously improve and maintain our high standards," said Margaret Mathis, CrisisLink's Director of Hotline Services and Training, upon returning from the conference.

Mary Azoy, CrisisLink's Director of Community Education and Crisis Response, presented two separate workshops titled, "Writing to Heal: A Poetry Workshop for Suicide Survivors" and "Emergent Adulthood: Suicide Prevention in the Transition from High School to College, Military or Independent Living."