Strategies for Teaching Suicide Content in Social Work Education: A Survey of Social Work Instructors

Suicide is a major public health issue in the United States and schools of social work have an important role to play in educating future social workers in suicide prevention. This article describes the results of a survey of BSW and MSW practice instructors (N = 259) exploring the strategies used to teach suicide content, including resources used to support their teaching and assignments to evaluate student competency with suicide prevention knowledge and skills. Most instructors (74.1%) use written resources such as practice textbooks and journal articles to support their teaching, although there are some differences between the practices of BSW versus MSW instructors. Fewer (34.0%) used an assessment of student competency working with clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Implications for social work practice instructors are described, including the need to stay current on best practices in suicide assessment and intervention, expand the use of written resources for diverse groups, the use of culture in suicide assessment, maintaining up-to-date, current resources for students, and developing assignments which can effectively evaluate student competency and skill working with clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.