Clinical psychology graduate education in the study of suicide: availability, resources, and importance

Psychologists run the risk of losing a patient to suicide and of experiencing the traumatic impact of this event. The present study examines current levels of training in the study of suicide in the member-departments of the National Council of Schools of Professional Psychology (NCSPP--N = 33), comparing these findings with the level of training in member-departments (N = 115) of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology programs (CUDCP). Eighty percent of the CUDCP departments (N = 92) responded, and of these, only 35% offer formal training in the study of suicide; whereas in the 76% of the NCSPP programs that responded, 56% offer formal training. Although the NCSPP programs seem attitudinally more receptive and supportive of formal training (graduate and postgraduate) in the study of suicide, the NCSPP programs do not significantly differ from their CUDCP counterparts in the actual availability of such formal training. Even when all training efforts of the CUDCP and NCSPP programs are combined, only 40% of all graduate programs in clinical psychology offer formal training in the study of suicide.