Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Presentation Icons

Recorded Session

Ticketed Session

15 Views

Open Paper

Mood Disorders and Suicidality

Suicidality and Self-Harm: Prevention, Interventions, and Patient Perspectives

2 - (OP8) Quality Improvement in Partnership: Results from a System-wide Rollout of Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) Training

Thursday, June 25, 2026

2:22 PM - 2:39 PM PDT

Location: Golden Gate C3, B2 Level

Keywords: Evidence-Based Practice, Community-Based, Suicide
Recommended Readings: Labouliere CD, Green KL, Vasan P, et al. Is the outpatient mental health workforce ready to save lives? Suicide prevention training, knowledge, self-efficacy, and clinical practices prior to the implementation of a statewide suicide prevention initiative. Suicide Life Threat Behav. Apr 2021;51(2):325-333. doi:10.1111/sltb.12708, Sale, E., Hendricks, M., Weil, V., Miller, C., Perkins, S., & McCudden, S. (2018). Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM): An evaluation of a suicide prevention means restriction training program for mental health providers. Community Mental Health Journal, 54(3), 293–301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-017-0190-z, McClure, J. M., Young, M. A., Eberle, S., Austin, J. E., Junger, K. W., Reisman, T., Steller, J. R., Seger, B., Unaka, N. (08 May 2025). Transforming pediatric mental and behavioral healthcare through a regional learning network: A guide for leveraging implementation science. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Online ahead of print. http://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2025.2502921, ,

Author(s)

Jillian E. Austin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Pediatric Psychologist
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Co-Author(s)

MY

Melissa E. Young, Psy.D.

Assistant Professor
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati Chidlren's Hospital Medial Center
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
AB

Allison Blackburn, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
DK

Diane King, M.S.

Vice President of Quality & Strategy
NewPath Child and Family Solutions
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Jessica M. McClure, Psy.D.

Associate Chief Population Health Officer
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

The rising demand for pediatric mental and behavioral health (MBH) services has intensified the need for effective suicide prevention strategies, yet access to clinicians trained in evidence-based practices remains limited. Gaps in care can lead to overburdened emergency departments and avoidable psychiatric admissions. This manuscript highlights a collaborative initiative between an academic medical center and a community MBH organization within the Pediatric Improvement Network for Quality (PINQ) to address these challenges. Guided by implementation science principles—training, expert consultation, and quality improvement—the partnership launched a system-wide rollout of Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) training to strengthen suicide prevention efforts across the continuum of care. Following the universal training, three months of expert-led case consultation focused on suicide interventions from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CBT-SP). Notably, MBH-related emergency department visits and psychiatric admissions declined within three months of universal CALM training, with sustained improvements during subsequent expert-led consultation sessions. These findings underscore the critical role of CALM training—combined with expert-led consultation—alongside learning networks, QI methodology, and MBC—in driving system-level improvements in pediatric MBH care.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the roles of evidence-based training and expert-led case consultation on reducing mental health crises.