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Digital Seminar

Ethics & Suicide Care

$69.99 Standard

It's hard to feel prepared for the ethical dilemmas that show up in suicide prevention practice - 

Like, how to manage confidentiality when it seems like now is the time to involve family and friends in supporting your client’s safety...

Whether involuntary hospitalization – which may cause harm – is truly the least-restrictive care environment...

Or how to provide clients with what is evidence-based while institutional demands require a different course of action.

In this session, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas will walk you through the evolving ethical landscape of suicide-informed care to give you what you need to know when you’re working with clients, whether they’re in crisis, live with chronic suicidal thoughts, or survived a suicide attempt. You’ll get:

  • An ethical compass to balance autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice 
  • Tools drawn from contemporary ethics frameworks, cultural humility practices, and lived experience perspectives
  • A framework to balance professional duty of care with compassion and respect

Here's What You'll Learn

Ethical Foundations in Suicide Prevention

  • Relevant bio-ethical principles – autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice
  • Ethics and suicide research 
  • Recognize over-identification or avoidance in suicide-exposed helpers.
  • Ethics in justice and systemic constraints 
  • Moral distress in clinicians

Ethical Tensions in Suicide Intervention

  • The paradox of protection
  • Potential harm and trauma in forced “treatment”
  • Weigh duty-to-protect vs self-determination to integrate least-restrictive, person-centered care
  • Ethical use of safety plans and advanced directives 
  • Right to die and ethics in suicide-grief and trauma support
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Everything You're Getting

  • More than 1 hour of video content
  • Up to 1.0 CE credits
  • Certificate of completion
  • Handouts and resources

Meet Your Experts

Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD

Toggle speaker biography

Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD is a clinical psychologist, award-winning keynote speaker, and impact entrepreneur dedicated to transforming suicide prevention from risk management to meaningful healing. She is internationally recognized for integrating the stories, science, and strategy of suicide prevention to help clinicians, leaders, and organizations move beyond liability-driven care toward compassionate competence. 
 

Dr. Spencer-Thomas is Co-Founder and President of United Suicide Survivors International and co-founder of Man Therapy®, an innovative men’s mental health initiative. She served as the founding Executive Secretary of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and has held national leadership roles with the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), including Executive Board Member and Secretary, as well as leadership positions within the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). She has served on Lived Experience Advisory Committees for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (now 988), helping embed lived experience into national strategy. 
 

A TEDx speaker and White House invitee, Dr. Spencer-Thomas has consulted and presented across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her most important credential, however, is her lived experience as a suicide loss survivor—a calling that drives her work to help clinicians not only prevent suicide but sustain a passion for living in the people they serve. 


Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Sally Spencer Thomas maintains a private practice and receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Sally Spencer Thomas is the president of United Suicide Survivors International and is a member of the executive board for the American Association of Suicidology. She is co-chair of the Workplace Special Interest Group for the International Association of Suicide Prevention and is a member of the Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

More taught by Sally Spencer-Thomas, PsyD

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Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

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Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Product Code:
POS150891
Duration:
1 hour, 3 minutes
Copyright:
Aug 17, 2026
Closed Captions:
Available
Format:
Audio and Video

ADA Needs

We would be happy to accommodate your ADA needs; please call our Customer Service Department for more information at 1-800-844-8260.

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