(PS8-42) Enhancing Community Capacity for Suicide Prevention: Piloting an Interdisciplinary Graduate Course

Suicide remains one of the leading preventable causes of death in the United States, with suicide death rates rising yearly across all age groups. Research shows that while individuals in crisis might not have access to mental health care, they are more likely to interact with individuals in their community, with most individuals who die via suicide seeing their doctor within a year of their death. However, many individuals in health-related fields report lack of training and knowledge about suicide prevention. Extending the Gatekeeper Training framework, we developed an interdisciplinary graduate course in suicide prevention. In this presentation, we describe our approach to the course, course components, and preliminary outcomes from our initial cohort.  Course materials included foundational knowledge on suicide prevalence, risk and protective factors and an introduction to suicide risk assessment and evidence-based suicide prevention. As part of the course, students were required to complete roleplay demonstrations of core skills, including validation and suicide risk assessment using the ASQ and CSSR-S. Applied practice integrated self-reflection to encourage behavior change. In total, 13 students enrolled in the course from a variety of healthcare-affiliated graduate programs (e.g., nursing leadership, social work) and non-healthcare-affiliated programs (e.g., physical sciences, emergency management). Paired sample t-tests indicated that students reported increased confidence (t=-3.6, p=.004), comfort (t=-4.8, p</span>< .001), and perceived competence (t=-5.02, p< .001) helping someone at risk for suicide after participating in the course. Preliminary findings suggest that integrated suicide-specific training into graduate education is feasible, acceptable, and potentially effective in improving community capacity for suicide prevention.