System-Involved Youth Self-Harm: Assessing Risk and Supporting Safety

Sarah Solis LCSW

Training Description

This 3-hour training will focus on the research on reasons why system-involved youth (SIY) self-harm and evidenced based practices to support the decrease in self-harm behaviors. Attendees will look at the relationship between self-harm and suicidality, increasing the ability to both contextualize self-harm in the spectrum of suicidality and support it independently when suicide risk is not present. The training will review strategies to balance risk assessment with youth empowerment, taking a harm reduction stance when appropriate.  Lastly, attendees will review effective means of engaging caregivers, whether needing to break confidentiality or support SIY in voluntarily sharing their self-harm to enhance safety.

Learning Objectives

•        Participants will be able to identify 2 or more reasons SIY self-harm.

•        Participants will acquire  1 strategy to decrease self-harm risk.