Culturally Competent Management of Suicide

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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

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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.