Conference Agenda

Background:
Workplaces can play a crucial role in suicide prevention — colleagues are often the first to notice when something’s off. “No One to Lose – Workplace” is a short, team-based training program developed to increase the employees’ confidence in responding to possible suicide risk. The program mixes short films with guided group discussions. Organizations receive some initial guidance by phone but run the sessions themselves, making it a flexible option that fits into everyday work routines.

Method:
A total of 20 organizations with approximately 800 employees were offered the training. The employees were invited to participate in anonymous online surveys before and after the training, and N=399 and N=197 responded to the pre- and post-tests, respectively. Participants rated their confidence (on a 1–10 scale) on recognizing suicide risk, talking directly and offering support to a person with suicidal thoughts. We compared confidence levels before and after the training, using independent samples t-tests. Additionally, implementation was assessed in terms of completion rates, teamwork, and leadership involvement.

Results:
Most participants completed the training, joined the discussions, and many managers took part. Overall, scores increased towards higher confidence in the posttest, and most markedly with regards to talking openly about suicide and knowing how to offer support. Qualitative feedback was overwhelmingly positive — participants highlighted the program’s relevance, practicality, and impact on reducing stigma. Some wanted more time, clearer crisis routines, and extra tools. Many also expressed interests in further training.

Conclusion:
A short team-based program can strengthen employees’ confidence in responding to suicide risk — especially by encouraging open dialogue and supportive action. Manager participation and collective reflection seem to boost the effect. While self-report data and the lack of a control group limit causal conclusions, the findings suggest that simple, discussion-based training can make workplaces more prepared to prevent suicide.

Globally veterinarians safeguard public health, uphold food safety, rehabilitate wildlife, and care for our herds and family pets. Despite their vital role, unique patient-client-veterinarian relationships expose them to complex stressors such as emotionally demanding work, moral injury, and systemic challenges. Such contributories and the easy access to lethal means have led to elevated psychological distress and increased suicide risk, positioning the veterinary sector as a high-risk profession.

Much of the current research focuses on awareness rather than actionable strategies, with limited integration of the lived experience perspectives. There is a need for a comprehensive approach that operationalises an intervention from a bottom up and top-down approach on an individual to organisational level. Guided by the Public Health Model and adapting the MATES in Construction program, this research integrates lived experience and veterinary specific insights to shift awareness into action.

Central to this approach is collaboration across research, training, and peer support initiatives. VetHerd’s suicide prevention program, fosters peer-to-peer connection and delivers standardised LivingWorks training exclusively to the veterinary community, equipping individuals with lifesavings skills in an environment where they can explore context that is relevant to the profession. The AUSVETS PhD program of research offers empirical insights into the risk and protective factors and evaluates the LivingWorks Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) feasibility and effectiveness from a lived experience informed lens. Together, these initiatives offer an integrated, wraparound approach for suicide prevention in the veterinary sector.

This work advances ESSSB21’s focus on interdisciplinary, evidenced-informed strategies for suicide prevention. This work extends public health suicide prevention by embedding proven interventions and the lived experience-informed perspective into the veterinary sector offering a scalable approach to suicide prevention in high-risk professions.

Background:
Workplace suicide postvention is increasingly recognized as essential to suicide prevention, yet organizational responses following suicide death, attempts, or serious suicidal crises remain inconsistent and poorly governed. Existing guidance is fragmented across healthcare, occupational health, disaster response, and suicide prevention literatures, with limited integration of implementation science or explicit attention to unintended harm.

Methods:
We conducted a comprehensive synthesis of peer-reviewed studies, systematic and scoping reviews, national and international guidelines, evaluated workplace programs, and gray literature addressing suicide postvention in workplace settings. Evidence spanned healthcare, construction, emergency services, office-based sectors, and under-resourced work environments across North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and select non-Western contexts. Sources were analyzed to identify recurring postvention components, temporal patterns, implementation strategies, outcome measures, and documented iatrogenic effects. Empirically evaluated elements were distinguished from consensus-based recommendations.

Results:
Across sectors, workplace suicide postvention consistently involves multi-phase responses spanning immediate (0–72 hours), short-term (1–6 weeks), and longer-term (2–12 months) periods. Core components include structured crisis communication, psychological first aid, referral pathways, facilitated peer or group support, psychoeducation, sustained access to mental health services, workplace accommodations and return-to-work planning, and organizational governance mechanisms. Empirical evidence is strongest for structured communication, facilitated support, and sustained clinical care. Many policy, stigma-reduction, and governance interventions remain consensus-based. Substantial evidence documents implementation failures, including reliance on untrained managers, inconsistent protocol activation, and lack of fidelity monitoring. Importantly, multiple sources identify iatrogenic harms associated with poorly designed postvention, including re-traumatization, blame, stigma amplification, and worsening psychological outcomes.

Conclusions:
Workplace suicide postvention is best understood as a complex organizational system rather than a single intervention. Evidence indicates that poorly implemented postvention can cause harm, underscoring the need for structured, implementation-informed approaches that explicitly address iatrogenic risk, role clarity, and accountability.

This work synthesizes global evidence to demonstrate that poorly governed workplace suicide postvention causes iatrogenic harm to clinicians, and that suicide-safer systems require enforceable, dignity-preserving standards rather than discretionary support.

Background:
Clinicians, particularly mental health professionals and suicide prevention workers, experience high rates of occupational exposure to suicide through patient deaths, suicide attempts, and ongoing crisis care. Despite this risk, workplace suicide postvention is inconsistently governed and frequently treated as discretionary support rather than a safety-critical system. Emerging evidence indicates that poorly designed or poorly implemented postvention may itself cause harm.

Methods:
We conducted a comprehensive synthesis of peer-reviewed studies, systematic and scoping reviews, national and international guidelines, evaluated workplace programs, and gray literature addressing workplace suicide postvention, with a primary focus on clinician populations. Evidence spanned healthcare, mental health services, crisis intervention settings, emergency services, and related high-exposure roles across North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and select non-Western contexts. Sources were analyzed to identify recurring postvention components, implementation patterns, governance gaps, outcome measures, and documented iatrogenic effects. Empirically evaluated elements were distinguished from consensus-based practices.

Results:
Across settings, postvention for clinicians consistently unfolds across immediate (0–72 hours), short-term (1–6 weeks), and longer-term (2–12 months) phases. Core components include structured crisis communication, psychological first aid, facilitated peer or group support, referral pathways, sustained access to mental health care, and work accommodations. Evidence is strongest for structured communication, facilitated support, and continuity of care. However, substantial evidence documents systemic failures, including reliance on untrained managers, inconsistent protocol activation, regulatory fear, and lack of role clarity. Multiple bodies of literature identify iatrogenic harms following suicide exposure, including re-traumatization, blame, professional silencing, stigma amplification, and worsening psychological distress.

Conclusions:
Global evidence demonstrates that poorly governed workplace suicide postvention predictably harms clinicians. Suicide-safer systems therefore require enforceable, dignity-preserving postvention standards rather than discretionary or ad hoc support.

Background

Organisations such as public safety agencies and schools, are periodically required to respond to the death of a member by suicide. Organisational responses—often articulated through postvention guidelines—aim to reduce distress, support affected individuals, and mitigate the risk of further suicides. Despite the widespread use of such guidelines, there has been no comprehensive synthesis of their content, scope, and underlying assumptions.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies and organisational governance documents describing guidelines or formal recommendations for responding to a death by suicide within an organisation. The review followed PRISMA-ScR and Joanna Briggs Institute guidance and was informed by the Arksey and O’Malley framework. Searches of six academic databases from inception to February 2025 were complemented by a systematic grey literature search of publicly available organisational documents across five countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand), including targeted website searches, customized Google searches, and expert consultation. Eligible documents detailed specific organisational post-suicide response strategies rather than general postvention principles.

Results

Forty-nine documents met inclusion criteria, comprising 15 peer-reviewed studies and 34 governance documents across education, healthcare, public safety, military, and other workplace settings. Analysis identified recurring components of organisational response guidelines, including supporting colleagues to cope, death notification procedures, memorialization practices, communication with media and social media, supporting families, crisis mobilization, contagion risk management, clinical service provision, coordination through suicide response teams, and advance planning. Guidance on memorialization and line-of-duty recognition was notably variable, particularly within PSP contexts.

Conclusions

Existing organisational suicide response guidelines share common structural elements but vary substantially in scope, depth, and contextual applicability. This synthesis highlights both consensus practices and critical gaps, providing an evidence-informed foundation to guide the development of tailored, context-specific postvention strategies for public safety and other high-risk organisations.

Introduction: Effective suicide prevention requires mental health professionals to hold non-stigmatizing attitudes toward suicidal behavior and to perceive themselves as clinically competent when working with clients exhibiting suicidal thoughts or behaviors. However, existing measurement tools often lack sufficient clinical specificity for assessing these constructs in professional practice. Accordingly, the present study aimed to develop two new self-report measures to assess mental health professionals’ attitudes toward and perceived competence in suicide-related clinical work, and to examine their psychometric properties.

Methods: The study sample consisted of 410 mental health professionals practicing in Türkiye, predominantly psychologists, followed by psychological counselors and psychiatrists. Construct validity was examined using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega coefficients, and test–retest reliability was evaluated over a four-week interval. Criterion-related validity was examined using the Literacy of Suicide Scale and the Stigma of Suicide Scale.

Results: EFA and CFA supported a three-factor structure for the Attitudes Toward Working with Suicidal Behavior Scale (26 items; Attitudes toward Working, Attitudes toward Treatment, and Attitudes toward the Suicidal Client) and a single-factor structure for the Perceived Competence in Working with Suicidal Behavior Scale (15 items). Both models demonstrated satisfactory fit indices (CFI > .95, RMSEA < .07). Internal consistency was good to excellent (α/ω = .87–.88 for the attitudes scale; .90/.88 for the competence scale), with strong test–retest reliability (r = .86 and .79). Criterion-related validity was supported by positive associations between perceived competence and suicide literacy, and by associations between negative attitudes and suicide stigma.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that both scales are valid and reliable tools for assessing mental health professionals’ attitudes and perceived competence in working with suicidal behavior, with potential applications in research and clinical training.