Training Mental Health Professionals to Assess and Manage Suicidal Behavior: Can Provider Confidence and Practice Behaviors be Altered?

Remarkably little systematic research has studied the effects of clinical suicidology training on changing practitioner attitudes and behaviors. In the current study we investigated whether training in an empirically‐based assessment and treatment approach to suicidal patients administered through a continuing education workshop could meaningfully impact professional practices, clinic policy, clinician confidence, and beliefs posttraining and 6 months later. At the 6 month follow‐up we found that 44% of practitioners reported increased confidence in assessing suicide risk, 54% reported increased confidence in managing suicidal patients, 83% reported changing suicide care practices, and 66% reported changing clinic policy. These results suggest that a brief and carefully developed workshop training experience can potentially change provider perceptions and behaviors with a possible impact on clinical care therein.     

The school psychologist as expert witness in due process hearings

As a consequence of the Consent Agreement reached between the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, school of psychologists are finding themselves increasingly in the role of expert witness in due process hearings. The paper identifies a number of problems regarding the witness behavior of psychologists in these hearings and proposes some recommendations and resolutions.     

Law, educational reform, and the school psychologist

The law has become a major vehicle for those seeking to reform education. The two areas of reform which most affect school psychologists are the extension of the right to a public education to previously discriminated against and excluded groups, and the extension of the protection of the Bill of Rights to all school children. The potential impact of these areas on the role of the school psychologist is suggested by preliminary findings on one such reform, the right of retarded children to an appropriate education and the guarantee of that right through the provision of procedural due process. Any response to the reform by school psychologists will involve risks and opportunities which must be carefully weighed if a wise choice is to be made from the point of view of both children and the profession.