Title: Future-Ready Clinicians: Strengthening Suicide Risk Competence through SafeSide Implementation
The Charles Darwin University Health Hub Psychology Clinic has progressively integrated the SafeSide Framework for Suicide Prevention into Master of Clinical Psychology training and clinic operations. While enhancing the safety of community clients has been a primary focus for the implementation of SafeSide, there is also a contextual pressure to ready the clinical students for direct interaction with a diverse population of community-based clients who present with a range of mental health needs and experiences.
Our multi-level implementation encompasses supervisor training, structured educational modules, integrated clinic processes, and sustained practice support. Students learn to move beyond traditional risk assessment toward collaborative conversations about risk and safety planning that honours the person’s personal context and experience. The framework's emphasis on strengths, connections, and protective factors and teaching that integrates voices of lived experience aligns with contemporary recovery-oriented practice.
Preliminary educational outcomes demonstrate improvements in self-efficacy for engaging clients in suicide-related conversations (74% to 100%), contributing to risk assessments (39% to 100%), and developing collaborative safety plans (26% to 97%). This data from CDU will be presented alongside data from other international health services trainees learning SafeSide.
Key implementation factors include dedicated supervisor preparation, integration with existing curriculum, regular booster sessions, and embedding SafeSide language into routine clinic documentation. Challenges around training logistics and sustaining practice change have informed iterative improvements.
This presentation will share practical strategies for embedding evidence-based suicide prevention approaches training in clinical education settings, including sharing specific workshop skills and excerpts. Attendees will learn how preparing future clinicians in collaborative approaches contributes to the conference vision of "United Voices, Brighter Futures" in suicide prevention.