Zero Suicide Academy® is EDC’s signature learning series for health and behavioral health organizations seeking to dramatically reduce suicides among those in their care.
A Zero Suicide Academy brings EDC’s expert staff and faculty to the healthcare organizations, providers, and teams you support. In-person or online, we guide participants through transformative suicide care.
About the Academy
Led by EDC’s expert Zero Suicide staff and faculty, the Zero Suicide Academy provides up to 16 teams from health and behavioral health organizations with an invaluable opportunity to kick off or reinvigorate their Zero Suicide implementation, learn about the Zero Suicide framework and seven elements, begin strategic implementation planning, and prepare for commonly faced challenges. Teams will have the opportunity to network with similar organizations, establishing relationships with each other and our team for ongoing assistance.
Using the Zero Suicide framework, participants learn how to incorporate best and promising practices into their organizations and processes to improve care and safety for individuals at risk of suicide. The Zero Suicide Academy includes both interactive presentations and small group sessions. There is time for our staff and faculty to collaborate with teams to develop organization-specific action plans.
What are the seven elements of Zero Suicide?
Sponsoring an Academy
A Zero Suicide Academy is typically hosted by a sponsor organization. A sponsor may be state behavioral health authority, tribal government, federal agency, or regional healthcare center of excellence. Larger integrated delivery networks that include many service lines across a state or region may also host a Zero Suicide Academy for those internal locations and service lines.
We offer two formats for Academy: in-person and online. Both formats are delivered in three parts: a two-hour learning session, a two-day learning session, followed by a final two-hour session. An in-person Zero Suicide Academy often draws teams from across a city, state, or region into a central location chosen by the sponsor. Teams will gather in person for the two-day session and meet online for both two-hour sessions. An online Zero Suicide Academy is held on a webinar platform for all three sessions, typically hosted by EDC.
A Zero Suicide Academy may focus on a particular kind of organization such as community mental health centers, hospitals, or FQHCs. Other Zero Suicide Academies are open to a wide range of organizations in a particular geographical area, like hospitals, outpatient health and behavioral health settings, school mental health, crisis centers, and justice settings in one region of a state.
Academy FAQs
- Is sponsoring a Zero Suicide Academy right for me?
-
If you’re a state, large organization, federal grantee, federal agency, or regional prevention coalition interested in supporting health and behavioral health organizations in your area to begin their Zero Suicide work, then sponsoring a Zero Suicide Academy is the perfect fit!
If your organization is ready to get started but you don’t have an Academy sponsor, you may want to keep an eye out for an upcoming National Zero Suicide Academy or Zero Suicide Academies listed in our events to see if there is one already scheduled in your area. Your organization could also consider a workshop or consultation service.
- How long is a Zero Suicide Academy?
-
The series includes three parts:
- Part 1: Introduction to Zero Suicide (2 hours)
- Part 2: Implementing Zero Suicide (2 days)
- Part 3: Sustaining Zero Suicide (2 hours)
Part 1 occurs about one week before Part 2 to teach the Zero Suicide framework and is online. Part 2 is a 2-day event focused on the implementation of Zero Suicide that can happen in-person or online. About a month after the Academy, participants will reconvene for Part 3 online (2 hours) to discuss how to sustain their efforts.
- Is an in-person or online Academy better?
-
Both formats include the same great content and number of learning hours, so the choice is yours!
Sponsoring an in-person Academy may meet your needs if:
- You want to open eligibility to a limited geographical region (e.g., all tribal-serving systems in your area or those that provide a system of care in a large urban setting)
- Your participants prefer an in-person learning format
- You want to host an academy back-to-back with another meeting in your city where you know participants are visiting (e.g., state suicide prevention conference)
Sponsoring an Academy online may meet your needs if:
- Your state or region is experiencing limitations to meeting in person
- Your state or region experiences weather at certain times of the year that makes travel to a central location difficult or impossible
- You want to open eligibility to a wide geographical area (e.g., regionally, nationally, or internationally)
- How do you prioritize engagement online?
-
When we brought Zero Suicide Academy to an online environment, we got our team together to discuss what techniques translated well online and what didn’t and paired our knowledge with a thorough review of best practices in online engagement. Over time, we have changed platforms, incorporated emerging technologies and applications, and studied feedback from participants. And we'll continue to do so.
Our current iteration uses a variety of engagement tools, including breakout rooms, live chat, video share, multimedia clips, digital whiteboards—along with brain breaks and self-care activities. The intentional design of the online Zero Suicide Academy encourages teams to learn from each other and access our experts as thought partners.
Have more questions? Ready to sponsor a Zero Suicide Academy? Reach out to us anytime!