Image credit: Book, Suicide in Schools, Routledge

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Suicide in Schools A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention
by Terri A. Erbacher, Jonathan B. Singer, Scott Poland

Suicide Prevention Tools¹

Absolutely the most important part of a screening is the connection and conversation that precedes the forms and tools. Nothing replaces that interaction of the student feeling heard and understood. Looking for tools specific to school nurses? Get those here.

1. Youth Suicide Risk Screening Form ² — This tool is adapted from the ASQ Suicide Screening Tool.
   Alternative Tools
   • NIMH ASQ Suicide Risk Toolkit and screening tool⁸ for ages 10+ or for as young as 8 when clinically indicated. Takes about 20 seconds to administer. (image below)
   • C-SSRS, Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. This is more of an assessment tool and isn’t designed as a screening tool.
2. Youth Suicide Risk Assessment Form ³ — Assessing suicide risk and identifying opportunities to prevent it. No one can definitively predict anyone’s suicide risk, but we can identify areas of prevention.
3. Youth Safety Plan ⁴ — There are a number of these out there, and alternatives are below.
   • This is an alternative safety plan from Kimberly O’Brien, PhD, that includes one for parent(s) on behalf of the child. The safety plan PDF with examples is here.
   • Get Kimberly O’Brien, PhD, LICSW’s manual for the suicide safety plans and the template here.
   • This is an example of a safety plan submitted by Stacey Fredenthal, PhD, LCSW.
4. Youth Re-entry Plan ⁵ — What modifications will be made, how will the child answer difficult questions, and what supports are available in school?
5. Suicide Risk Monitoring Tools – This was the missing piece of the overall process of suicide prevention and is based on this study. Two tools below for each grade level:
   • Suicide Risk Monitoring Tool K-8 ⁶
   • Suicide Risk Monitoring Tool High School ⁷
6. Zip files of many of these tools in Portuguese and Spanish. Click here, scroll down to Support Material, and you’ll see the files (image below for reference).

Scroll down on this page until you see the phrase “support material” and click on the to open and reveal the resources.

More tools for clinicians are here from Dr. Terry Erbacher.

Click here to get K-12 Educator Suicide Prevention Resources

Resources, including videos, activities, and sample adult-student conversations

Get the Resources

ASQ Suicide Screening Tool Questions

Below are questions from the ASQ suicide screening tool for ages 10 and up. There is more to the form but in case you are curious. See the NIMH ASQ Toolkit here.

To see Mental Health Speaker for Schools Programs and Suicide Prevention Training for Educators, click the button below.

School Mental Health Speaker

Sources and Credits:

¹ These recommended tools are downloads from Erbacher Consulting and are recommended in the book, Suicide in Schools by Jonathan Singer PhD, LCSW, Terri Erbacher PhD, and Scott Poland PhD.

^{2, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7} © Terri A. Erbacher, Jonathan B. Singer & Scott Poland. Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention. Routledge, 2015. Permission to reproduce is granted to purchasers of this text.

⁸ Source: NIMH, ASQ Suicide Screening Toolkit. Horowitz LM, Bridge JA, Teach SJ, et al. Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ): A Brief Instrument for the Pediatric Emergency Department. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166(12):1170–1176. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2012.1276

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AnneMoss Rogers

AnneMoss Rogers is a leading wellness and suicide education expert and one of the top mental health speakers and suicide prevention speakers. Known for her powerful, motivational keynotes, AnneMoss combines her personal story of loss with proven strategies to help organizations build a wellness culture that drives results and saves lives.  She speaks at conferences, workplaces, K-12 schools, and universities, delivering impactful presentations that inspire change and promote mental health awareness.
AnneMoss does this work in memory of her son, Charles, who struggled with anxiety, depression, and addiction, and died by suicide at age 20 in 2015.