...for referring potentially suicidal students. A step-by-step model is provided for school counselors to use and adapt for suicide in-service training.

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Suicide rates among today's youth have risen dramatically since the 1950s (King, 2001). Currently, suicide is the third leading cause of death for children ages 10-19 and the only cause of death to increase for 10- to 14-year-olds in recent years (Hamilton et al., 2007). Suicide accounted for 7.2% and 12.4% of all deaths for younger and older adolescents, respectively, in 2004 (Hamilton et al.). Given these alarming statistics, school personnel have an obligation to do what they can to prevent suicides.

School authorities must decide how best to prepare personnel to recognize suicidal students and understand the school referral process. Options include (a) curriculum-based programs for students, (b) faculty and staff in-service training, and (c) school-wide screening programs to identify students at risk (Eckert, Miller, DuPaul, & Riley-Tillman, 2003). Schools must choose the best approach for their community.

Several studies have examined the effectiveness of suicide awareness training for staff. Slaven and Kisely (2002) found increases in knowledge about suicide risk factors and raised confidence in ability to help suicidal clients after training. Likewise, Davidson and Range (1999) provided suicide awareness in-service to student teachers and observed greater knowledge about suicide and referral procedures.

Finally, teachers trained in suicide awareness were more knowledgeable of warning sign identification and prevention techniques following training (Klingman, 1990). In all cases, trainings were short and geared toward raising suicide awareness and referrals of potentially suicidal students.

Despite its effectiveness, a recent study (Gibbons & Studer, 2007) found few school counselors provided formal suicide awareness training to school faculty or staff due to the lack of a training model and limited time to create appropriate programming. Because this training can be an integral part of the primary prevention process, it is vital that school counselors lead the charge in addressing this issue. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide professional school counselors with a suicide awareness training model for school faculty and staff.

SUICIDE AWARENESS TRAINING

Several research projects (e.g., Davidson & Range, 1999; King, 2001; Popenhagen & Qualley, 1998) focused on the types of information that should be included in a faculty and staff suicide awareness training. Multiple themes emerged from this literature. First, although suicide awareness training directed at students has not been supported by...

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