Managing Risk in Young People: effective assessment and therapeutic strategies for suicidal and self-harm behaviour
Presenter: Dr Kirsten Davis
Suicide is the most common cause of death for young New Zealanders. Every year there are also 2500 hospital admissions for intentional self-harm injuries. When distressed, suicidal and/or self-harm thoughts or actions are often strategies used in an attempt to regulate emotion. The development of more effective strategies is imperative to support young people to move towards recovery. Suicidal and self-harming behaviours are challenging to work with and many professionals view this work as being complicated and anxiety provoking. This workshop is for professionals who work with young people and will increase understanding, confidence and competence in how to recognise and appropriately respond to suicidal ideation or self-harming behaviour when they encounter it in their work.
Some of the key content Kirsten will discuss includes:
- How self-harm differs from but also contributes to suicidal risk.
- Engaging and effective assessment strategies for suicidal and self-harm behaviour which assist to conceptualise the function of the behaviour within the wider context.
- How to teach and generalise effective and practical skills to regulate emotion.
- How to develop protocols to guide the management of behaviour in a crisis. How to engage the wider system in supporting the young person.
- How to support the families in developing strategies to more effectively support their young person and increase awareness of contingencies reinforcing suicidal and/or self-harm behaviour.
This practical and interactive workshop will be relevant to all counselling and helping professionals working with young people across the health, education, welfare and NGO sectors.
Dr Kirsten Davis is an Auckland-based Clinical Psychologist, trainer, consultant and supervisor who specialises in working with children, young people and their families. She has a particular interest in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and has been involved in the development, implementation and coordination of DBT Programs in both the health and care and protection sectors. Kirsten’s engaging presentation style, combined with her extensive experience of successfully working with distressed young people mean this is a workshop not to be missed for any professional seeking to strengthen their knowledge of ‘best practice’ interventions with young people at risk of self-harm or suicide.
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