12 TPC Digest Suicide continues to impact our communities at devastating rates. Suicide is a leading cause of death for Americans. To address the ongoing concern of suicide risk, counseling programs provide their students with coursework that better prepares them for crisis intervention and suicide prevention. Unfortunately, there are no consistent training standards or models among counseling programs for how to best do this; therefore, counseling programs are left to determine how to integrate intervention and prevention models and strategies into the curriculum. Although students have completed a variety of foundational coursework that prepares them for working with clients with diverse needs, students often report that they do not feel equipped to work with clients exhibiting suicidal ideations or behaviors. As suicide rates continue to increase, it is vital that counseling programs better equip their graduate students to effectively work with clients who present with suicidal ideations or behaviors. We developed a practice model for online counselor education programs to help increase counseling students’ self-efficacy in working with clients who may present with suicidal ideations or behaviors. The practice model was employed across 12 sections of an online basic counseling skills course, resulting in 60 online graduate-level mental health clinical counseling students who completed pre- and posttest self-efficacy assessments. After students completed the skills course and had an opportunity to role-play a scenario with a client who had suicidal ideations, the data showed that students’ self-efficacy increased as it related to working with this population. Implications for counselor education programs are discussed and include the integration of suicide training into online counseling skills courses. Implications from the study findings also include the need for additional outcome-based research for counselor education programs to better understand other factors that may impact students’ self-efficacy related to suicide assessment and intervention. Ashley Ascherl Pechek, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is an associate professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. Kristin A. Vincenzes, PhD, NCC, ACS, BC-TMH, LPC, is a professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. Kellie Forziat-Pytel, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is an assistant professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. Stephen Nowakowski is a graduate student at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. Leandrea Romero-Lucero, PhD, ACS, LPCC, CSOTS, is an associate professor and Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program Director at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. Correspondence may be addressed to Ashley Ascherl Pechek, 401 N. Fairview Street, Lock Haven, PA 17745, aap402@commonwealthu.edu. Ashley Ascherl Pechek, Kristin A. Vincenzes, Kellie Forziat-Pytel, Stephen Nowakowski, Leandrea Romero-Lucero Teaching Suicide Assessment and Intervention Online TPC Digest A Model of Practice
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