The South Carolina Office of Mental Health invites the South Carolina Department of Corrections, community corrections and associated justice involved and behavioral health partners to apply by August 29, 2025 for the October Zero Suicide Academy® in West Columbia, SC.
About the Academy
Dates
Academy Part 1: Introducing Zero Suicide (2 hours- Virtual)
Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 from 11:00pm-1:00pm ET
Academy Part 2: Implementing Zero Suicide (2 days- In Person)
Thursday, October 9th, 2025 from 10:00am-5:00pm ET
Friday, October 10th, 2025 from 8:00am-3:00pm ET
Academy Part 3: Sustaining Zero Suicide (2 hours- Virtual)
Thursday, November 6th, 2025 from 11:00pm-1:00pm ET
Description
The South Carolina Office of Mental Health, partnered with the Zero Suicide Institute, invites the South Carolina Department of Corrections, community corrections and associated justice involved and behavioral health partners to join Zero Suicide Institute Senior Project Associate Laurin Jozlin for a two-day, Zero Suicide Academy in West Columbia, South Carolina.
The Zero Suicide Academy is a training for senior leaders of health and behavioral healthcare organizations that seek to dramatically reduce suicides among individuals in their care.
Using the Zero Suicide Framework, participants will learn how to incorporate best and promising practices into their organizations and processes to improve care and safety for individuals at risk. Zero Suicide faculty provides both interactive presentations and small group sessions, collaborating with participants to develop organization-specific action plans.
Funded by the SAMHSA Zero Suicide Initiative Grant
Applications for this opportunity are due by August 29, 2025. Please submit one application per team. Individual team members do not have to register separately. The application should be under the team lead and list all team members.
Location
Phillips Market Center
117 Ballard Court
West Columbia, SC 29172
Eligibility
Those working with justice involved populations are eligible to attend this Academy.
Objectives
The objectives of the Zero Suicide Academy are to:
- Provide organizations interested in adopting a Zero Suicide approach with the skills and information necessary to launch their effort.
- Create collaborative links between the organizations launching these initiatives to provide mentorship and support so that the perspectives, knowledge, and skills of each inform the work of the others; and
- Aid in developing implementation plans for the Zero Suicide initiatives at each participating organization.
Contact
Questions? Please Contact:
Jessica Potito at jessica.potito@scdmh.org regarding eligibility.
Zero Suicide Institute at solutions@edc.org regarding application assistance.
How To Apply
(See content expanded below for Participant Eligibility and Application Instructions)
- Participant Eligibility
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Only the South Carolina Department of Corrections, South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon, and invited justice involved or behavioral health partners are eligible to attend this Academy. Applicants are to attend the Zero Suicide Academy with a team of 4 individuals (including the team lead).
Recommendations for team composition include:
- Person(s) responsible and with authority for implementation decisions (e.g. Wardens, CIO, ED, BH Director, or IT)
- At least one senior leader/management (irrespective of discipline area).
- At least one person who manages your electronic health records (EHR) system, quality improvement, or risk management.
- At least one person (e.g., case manager, psychologist, social worker, nurse, other) who provides care directly to patients daily.
- Zero Suicide implementation team members should include persons who can both champion Zero Suicide with passion and those who have some power and influence in your system. This can include clinical directors, senior clinical staff with coordination over a certain area or department, information technology, risk management or quality improvement, or a person with lived experience.
- Application Instructions
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All organizations wishing to be considered for the Zero Suicide Academy will submit the application by clicking the ‘apply’ button by August 29, 2025, 6 p.m. ET.
Please submit one application per team. Individual team members do not have to register separately. The application should be under the team lead and list all team members.
Application submission should include the following:
- A letter of commitment written by the organization's CEO/Senior Executive Leader/State Director. The leader should review and approve the submission and agree to the strategy proposed. You can review a template with suggested language here.
- When completing the application, you will be asked to provide:
- Contact information for your team members
- A brief description of your team’s relevant skills, knowledge, and experience.
- Your team's goals for participating in the Zero Suicide Academy
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- Provide organizations interested in adopting a Zero Suicide approach with the skills and information necessary to launch their effort.
- Create collaborative links between the organizations launching these initiatives to provide mentorship and support so that the perspectives, knowledge, and skills of each inform the work of the others; and Aid in developing implementation plans for the Zero Suicide initiatives at each participating organization.
Shelby Kuhn delivers training and consultation to improve care and outcomes for individuals at risk for suicide using a continuous quality improvement framework.
Laurin Jozlin, senior project associate, is a licensed clinical social worker with 10 years of experience in suicide prevention, suicide intervention, community mental health, and child and adolescent mental health.
Amy Molloy, senior project associate, is a behavioral health expert with 14 years of leadership experience in suicide prevention, mental health promotion, veterans’ services, and education.
Learn more