Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) workshops prepare participants to have collaborative and effective conversations about reducing access to lethal means during times of heightened suicide risk. This is an evidence-based strategy that can determine whether a person at risk for suicide lives or dies.
We offer two options: CALM Clinical for professionals and CALM Conversations for community members in Virginia’s education communities. Please only register for one workshop. Look at the “Best For” info below to make an informed choice.
CALM Clinical
The CALM Clinical Workshop is a 4-hour training designed for mental health, medical, and human service professionals. This workshop prepares professionals to guide individuals and their families in temporarily reducing access to firearms and dangerous medications during times of heightened suicide risk.
Format: Virtual (facilitated live via Zoom)
Duration: 4 hours
Best For: Healthcare, mental health, human service professionals, and other clinical professionals. Prior experience or suicide prevention training is strongly recommended.
Learning Objectives:
After completing this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Be able to provide a rationale for using means safety interventions.
- Articulate multiple options for increasing the safety of firearm storage.
- Outline steps for reducing access to dangerous doses of medication.
- Practice conducting means safety interventions with at-risk individuals and their families through case discussions and role plays.
Registration:
CALM Conversations
CALM Conversations is a 90-minute workshop designed for friends, family members, and community members who want to learn how to recognize and respond to suicide risk. This workshop teaches participants how to have supportive, non-judgmental conversations about means safety.
Format: Virtual (facilitated live via Zoom)
Duration: 90 minutes
Best For: Parents, bus drivers, teachers, professors, and other community members. No prior training in mental health or suicide prevention is required.
Workshop Sections:
The workshop covers:
- Understanding Suicide Risk: Basic facts and misconceptions about suicide, common risk factors and warning signs, and the importance of means safety.
- Asking About Suicide: How to ask about mood and suicidal thoughts.
- Connecting to Support: How to connect at-risk individuals to both formal and informal sources of support.
- Discussing Means Safety: How to have conversations about making the environment safer until mood improves.
Registration:
Additional workshops for both CALM Clinical and CALM Conversations are coming in Fall 2026. Please join our email list to be notified when they are available. If you’d like to coordinate a training specifically for your campus, school division, or local area, please email us at info@cspcv.org.
CALM Online
While live training is highly recommended, if a live workshop does not fit your schedule, or you would like a refresher, EDC has created an asynchronous online version, available through the Zero Suicide Institute. This self-paced course covers the fundamentals of lethal means counseling.
Duration: Approximately 2 hours.
CSPCV only provides referrals to the online training. Course access and administration is provided by the Zero Suicide Institute at EDC.
