(WITHDRAWN) Suicide-Related Training for Social Work Students in Field: A Survey of Students and Providers in Rural State

Background and Purpose

As suicide rates rise in the U.S., social work students are highly likely to encounter suicidal clients in practice. However, significant gaps in suicide-related education have been documented and many students feel under-prepared to address suicide in practice. Although field education is considered the “signature pedagogy” of social work education, little is known about the types of experiences and training related to suicide that social work students receive in their field placements. This exploratory study surveyed social work students and field instructors in a primarily rural state about their exposure to suicide-related practice experiences, the type and quality of training and supervision provided, and interventions that could improve suicide-related training in social work field placements.

Methods

BSW and MSW students and field instructors throughout the state of West Virginia were invited to complete separate versions of an electronic survey administered via Qualtrics. Participants were recruited through student and community education listservs as well as emails to field and program administrators at local social work programs. The surveys were designed by the researcher and included a combination of multiple choice, Likert-style, and numeric rating scale items regarding suicide-related training, supervision, and practice opportunities for social work students in field. Descriptive statistics were computed using SPSS 26.

Results

The final sample included N = 86 BSW and MSW students and N = 65 field instructors. Both samples were predominately White (90% - 93%) and female (87% - 88%). Most field instructors (87%) and students (87%) agreed that students should have the opportunity to work with suicidal clients in field. Students reported they frequently encountered suicidal clients in field; 75% of students reported working with at least one suicidal client, 29% had encountered 6 or more, and 12% had a client die by suicide. Students were most frequently engaged in suicidal inquiry, risk assessment, safety planning and least frequently providing postvention services. Between 30-60% of field instructors and students reported that formal trainings were provided by the agency for students on suicide-related topics. However, quality ratings of these trainings varied, and field instructors rated student preparedness to work with suicidal clients as low. Many field instructors (63%) reported they would like more training on the topic of suicide and lack of access to individuals with expertise was a significant barrier in this regard.

Conclusions and Implications

These preliminary data indicate that, although many social work students have opportunities to work with suicidal clients in field, field instructors and students would benefit from additional training in suicide-related interventions, particularly in postvention. Social work programs and agencies would benefit from increased access to high-quality trainings from individuals with expertise in suicide prevention and treatment. As these data are preliminary, future research should also explore these trends with larger, more representative samples of students and field instructors.