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Preventing Veteran Suicide: Strategies and Resources for Community-Based Health Care Professionals
Activity description
Veterans face unique challenges that increase their risk for suicide, and many receive care outside of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Community-based health care professionals (HCPs) often lack the specialized training to identify and address the specific needs of veterans at risk for suicide. By emphasizing evidence-based interventions such as suicide risk screening and lethal means safety, this on-demand webcast will highlight the critical role community HCPs play in bridging gaps in care. Attendees will gain knowledge about clinical assessments, learn the importance of a thorough and culturally informed clinical interview, engage veterans in discussions about firearm safety and secure storage and coordinate effectively with VHA resources.
This on-demand webcast is designed for counselors, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, psychologists, social workers and other HCPs who work with veterans and want to improve their ability to reduce suicide risk through practical, actionable interventions.
Upon completion of this activity, participants will:
- Identify three common myths about suicide prevention.
- Recognize risk factors for suicide unique to the military and veteran populations.
- Discuss approaches to implementing suicide risk assessment strategies into general practice.
- Describe methods that can help HCPs gain increased comfort with conducting lethal means safety discussions.
- Identify effective approaches to connect veterans and service members with suicide prevention resources.
Provided by
This activity is provided by Optum Health Education and Optum Serve.
Commercial support
No commercial support was received for this activity.
Required hardware/software
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Presenters
Robin Carter-Visscher, PhD
Deputy Medical Director, Veteran Services
Optum Serve
Summer Hillas-Buck, LMFT
Patient Safety Manager, Behavioral Health
Clinical Quality, VA Community Care Network (CCN)
Optum Serve
Sachi Horback, PsyD, PMP
Vice President, Product Development
Optum Serve
About the presenters
Robin Carter-Visscher, PhD, is deputy medical director and mental health lead for the Veteran Services Program at Optum Serve, the federal health care side of the UnitedHealth Group (UHG) enterprise. Dr. Carter-Visscher is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 17 years’ experience providing psychological services for veterans and service members. She currently leads a team of medical and behavioral health examiners and provides leadership, guidance, oversight and quality assurance to front-line examiners who assist with the provision of Department of Veterans Affairs contract Medical Disability Examinations.
Prior to joining Optum Serve, Dr. Carter-Visscher worked for the Sioux Falls VA Health Care System, serving in multiple capacities including PTSD-substance use disorder specialist, local military sexual trauma (MST) coordinator, Midwest Veteran Integrated Services Network (VISN 23) MST point of contact, local evidence-based psychotherapy coordinator, and Women Veterans Committee mental health and MST representative.
Summer Hillas-Buck, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist who works with individuals, couples and families suffering from a variety of life stressors and symptoms. Throughout her career, she has worked in child welfare/child protective services, school-based services and traditional outpatient settings as both a clinician and a mental health leader. In addition to her therapeutic training, she is knowledgeable on individualized education plans, testing for children and adults, crisis response and debriefing, conservatorship, serious mental illnesses, co-occurring diagnoses and client advocacy.
Sachi Horback, PsyD, PMP, is a vice president for product development at Optum Serve, the Federal sector of Optum, whose parent company is UHG. As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Horback is responsible for Optum Serve’s expansion into the behavioral health and human performance sector. She leads the overall vision, strategic plan and mission-driven teams for the behavioral health portfolio.
Prior to joining Optum Serve, Dr. Horback served in several executive leadership positions, most recently as the vice president of partnerships strategy for SteadyMD, where she developed and led client success and partnership strategies. As the chief academic officer and vice president for instruction at Clark College, she was responsible for 100+ academic programs, 12,000+ students annually and 800+ faculty/staff.
Planners
Elizabeth Albert, MD
Clinical Planner
Optum Health Education
Rebecca Gleason, RN, CCM
Clinical Planner
Optum Health Education
Disclosures of relevant financial relationships
In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education's (ACCME) Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, Optum Health Education (OHE) requires all those in control of educational content to disclose their financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. Ineligible companies are defined by the ACCME as companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care products used by or on patients. Individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies and regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education. OHE ensures that the content is independent of commercial bias.
The presenters and planners have no financial relationships to disclose.
Accreditation statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Optum Health Education and Optum Serve. Optum Health Education is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the health care team.
Credit designation statements
This activity was planned by and for the health care team, and learners will receive 1.0 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change.
Nurses
The participant will be awarded up to 1.00 contact hour(s) of credit for attendance and completion of supplemental materials.
Nurse practitioners
The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME and ANCC.
Pharmacists/Pharmacy technicians
This activity is approved for 1.00 contact hour ([0.10] CEU) in states that recognize ACPE.
Attending the full program will earn 1.00 contact hour.
Unique Activity Number(s): JA0007123-9999-24-108-H01-P/T
Physicians
Optum Health Education designates this enduring activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
PAs
The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME.
Psychologists
Optum Health Education is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to offer continuing education for psychologists. Optum Health Education maintains responsibility for this program. 1.00 CE hour.
Social workers
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Optum Health Education is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Optum Health Education maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 1.00 enduring continuing education credits.
Counselors and/or marriage and family therapists
CA: The Board of Behavioral Sciences has deferred CE course approvals to APA and ASWB for its licensees. See those approvals under Psychologists and Social Workers.
Other States: If your state is not specifically listed, nearly all state Counselor and MFT boards accept either APA or ASWB approval, or are reciprocal with other state licensing board approvals. Check with your board to be sure.
Attendance
A certificate of attendance will be provided to learners upon completion of activity requirements, enabling participants to register with licensing boards or associations that have not been preapproved for credits. To apply for credit types not listed above, participants should use the procedure established by the specific organization from which they wish to obtain credit.
Available Credit
- 1.00 ACPE - Pharmacists
- 1.00 ACPE - Pharmacy Technicians
- 1.00 AMA - Physicians
- 1.00 ANCC - Nurses
- 1.00 APA - Psychologists
- 1.00 Attendance - General Attendance
You must be logged into your account to participate in this activity. Get started by clicking “Register/Continue” and following the instructions. At the end of the activity, you will be able to view, save or print your certificate of participation. A complete listing of all of your activities can be found under “My Account,” “My Activities.”