'Suicide is only one option': Social Security staff newly assigned to phone duties raise concerns over training

"The Social Security Administration has instructed employees newly assigned to answering phones to tell callers expressing suicidal thoughts that suicide is "one option," raising concerns from employees and experts in the field who called the approach unorthodox. SSA recently began shifting new swaths of its workforce to phone answering duty, including those who normally receive and process retirement and disability claims, manage the agency's technology and work in the agency's finances unit."

"Caitlin Thompson, a clinical psychologist who spent eight years at the Veterans Affairs Department as a clinical care coordinator on the Veterans Crisis Line and later as the department's national director of suicide prevention, said SSA's approach did not follow commonly accepted best practices. "It's not a normal thing to say," Thompson said. "No. That's not the thing you say to somebody who might be suicidal.""

"Those employees received brief, three-hour training before they began answering calls. As part of that training, they were warned some callers may express suicidal ideation and presented with examples using a theoretical employee named Fiona. "It's important for Fiona to keep the caller engaged and to remind her that suicide is only one option," the animated trainer told employees in the video, a copy of which was obtained by Government Executive, "and that there is no urgency to make any decisions.""

The Social Security Administration reassigned many non‑call staff to answer phones and provided a brief three‑hour training before those employees began handling calls. Training materials instructed employees to tell callers expressing suicidal thoughts that suicide is "one option" and that there is no urgency to make decisions, using a hypothetical employee named Fiona in examples. Employees who attended the training were surprised and sought clarification from supervisors. A clinical psychologist with Veterans Crisis Line experience said the guidance does not follow commonly accepted best practices and recommended asking callers about immediate safety and connecting them to appropriate crisis resources.

Read at Nextgov.com