Behavioral Health & Recovery Services Blog

On December 6th, Dr. Joyce Chu, associate professor at Palo Alto University presented a training on Culturally Competent Management of Suicide. We learned 4 take-home points. These are taken directly from Joyce’s slideshow:

1. Be Aware: Ethnic and sexual minority subgroups (elderly, female, adolescents) at elevated risk
2. Don’t use mental illness as a sole screener for suicide
3. Unique cultural considerations should be incorporated into risk detection & management
   • Culture affects how suicidal distress is expressed
   • Look out for variant methods/means
   • Cultural Meanings of Stressors and Suicide are important
   • Pay attention to minority stress
   • Look at the social environment within one’s cultural context
4. The Cultural Model of Suicide and the CARS and CMMS can advance culturally-competent suicide management

Make sure to sign up for the Motivational Interviewing workshop on Friday and keep your eyes open for more workshops on cultural competence and cultural humility.