Preventing suicide through education, policy, and storytelling

The semicolon is used when an author chooses not to end the sentence.

The sentence is your life. You are the author.

About Katie

Survivor

On the worst day of my life, I tried to end it all by suicide. For years afterward, I lived in the shadow of shame that day cast over my life. It wasn't until other young people started to die by suicide that I found the courage to speak my truth, face the past, and turn my pain into a passion to help others find hope and help.

Having worked for over 20 years in the judicial system and k-12 public education, I continued to find myself intersecting with deaths of despair; hoping to find purpose in the pain.

My personal journey with suicidal ideation, hospitalizations, and being a loss survivor has led me to a fulfilling career as a suicidologist. Experience and research inform my approach to teaching others how we all can prevent the tragedy of suicide.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, free & confidential help is available 24/7/365.

Call or Text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988,

or chat online at https://988lifeline.org/chat/

Workshops and Keynotes

As a renowned speaker and suicide prevention advocate, I bring lived experience and researched best practices to your learning event. Contact me, and we can design a workshop or presentation that fits your needs and your audience.

Webcasts

I will speak with your organization from miles away on camera. Even though it is a virtual space I can still provide inspiring and skill-building workshops. Distance is no longer a barrier to learning skills to prevent suicide.

Media

Dirty Words Podcast - Suicide /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/ Suicide is death caused by injuring oneself with the intent to die National Suicide Lifeline Katie Ellison contacted us after our first episode. She presented the word Suicide and shared her story with us. Katie has a personal history with suicide and has a background in suicide prevention. This episode is a bit longer than usual but we address important and challenging topics. Parts of this discussion might be tough for some of our audience so please do what you need to take care of yourself (even if that means clicking off). Thank you for tuning in and listening to Katie share her story and expertise. Katie works in Firearm Suicide Prevention for the Missouri Institute of Mental Health as well as runs her own suicidie prevention consulting business, Semicolon Consulting. In this epsiode we discuss who Katie is and why she chose her field in suicide prevention. We go into details about what community response looks like, what is contagion, and what can you do to help (yourself or others). Time stamps for topics discussed are at the bottom of this episode description. Learn more about Katie's work here

Missouri Institute of Mental Health leading new effort to reduce suicide in Southeast Missouri

President Choi recognizes major grants and awards for Dr. Liz Sale & Katie Ellison ( @UMSL ).

Safer Homes Collaborative addresses connection between increasing gun ownership and suicide among black men

Board of Curators Chair Chatman highlights faculty members who are greatly contributing to our research mission: Katie Ellison & Dr. Elizabeth Sale (UMSL)

LAST DAY PODCAST - IS SUICIDE CONTAGIOUS - LEMONADA MEDIA

A Black gun enthusiast is on a lonely mission to stop Missouri's suicide crisis

New effort enlists support of Missouri gun dealers in reducing number of suicides

A Philosophy for the Future

I want to live in a world where on the worst day of your life someone comes along, sees your pain, and has the courage to ask if you are thinking about suicide. Imagine how many lives could be saved, how many stories would go on, simply because someone was willing to ask, "Are you thinking of suicide?"

Presentations

Keynote - 1 - hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Suicide Lifeguard - 3 hour workshop

In this keynote address, Katie shares her personal story of living with depression and anxiety, surviving two hospitalizations and a suicide attempt, as well as finding hope, healing, and recovery after stepping out of the shadow of shame by using her personal experience to prevent others living in the depths of despair.

Katie also talks of her professional experience as a suicide prevention advocate working in a school district during a time when 15 young people under the age of 20 died from suicide to her career coordinating two statewide firearm suicide prevention projects.

Suicide Lifeguard - 3 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Suicide Lifeguard - 3 hour workshop

Behavioral health professionals are not taught in graduate school how to assess, manage, or treat clients with suicidal ideation. Too often they learn these skills at the wrong time, on the job in the midst of a crisis. This 3-hour workshop is developed for behavioral health professionals seeking to develop skills to ask clients about suicide, assess for suicide risk using evidence-based tools, and to collaborate with clients in the development of a safety plan that can keep them safe outside of hospitalization.

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

In a nation where over 10 million Americans each year report experiencing thoughts of suicide, medical providers, school counselors, law enforcement, and mental health professionals are increasingly expected to be able to effectively assess suicide risk and provide support for suicidal individuals. Yet, many professionals do not receive suicide risk assessment or safety planning training through formal education, or worse yet they learn on the job in a crisis situation. This session will provide professionals with practical skills to improve their assessment and safety planning skills using evidence-based tools

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Gun owners play an important role in preventing firearm suicide. Participants learn how to identify and talk to someone who may be at risk of suicide, as well as options to encourage safer storage of lethal means, particularly firearms. Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes was developed in collaboration with firearm and injury prevention experts in mutual agreement that firearms should be safely stored or temporarily removed from the home to prevent suicide or unintentional injury.

Mental Health First Aid - 6.5 hour workshop

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Youth Mental Health First Aid - 4.5 hour workshop

Mental Health First Aid® is a skills-based training that teaches people how to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of a mental health or substance use challenge in adults ages 18 and over. The evidence behind the program demonstrates that it builds mental health literacy, providing an action plan that teaches people to safely and responsibly identify and address a potential mental health or substance use challenge. Mental Health First Aid is sometimes called Adult Mental Health First Aid.

Youth Mental Health First Aid - 4.5 hour workshop

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Youth Mental Health First Aid - 4.5 hour workshop

Youth Mental Health First Aid is designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other caring citizens how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis. Youth Mental Health First Aid is primarily designed for adults who regularly interact with young people. The course introduces common mental health challenges for youth, reviews typical adolescent development, and teaches a 5-step action plan for how to help young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations. Topics covered include anxiety, depression, substance use, disorders in which psychosis may occur, disruptive behavior disorders (including AD/HD), and eating disorders.

Working Minds: Suicide Prevention in the Workplace - 2 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools I: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

The 2-hour Working Minds training gives participants the tools and skills to appreciate the critical need for suicide prevention while creating a forum for dialogue and critical thinking about workplace mental health challenges. The program builds a business case for suicide prevention while promoting help-seeking and help-giving.

Building Suicide Resistant Schools I: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools I: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

From 2011 to 2017, Campbell County School District lost 15 current and former students under the age of 20, to suicide. Each time a student died by suicide the district and the community were rocked in disbelief. Educators and community members were left asking, “Why is this happening?” and “How do we make this stop?” District and community prevention specialists soon realized they were fighting a suicide contagion; desperate to find the answers to keep students from killing themselves. Katie Ellison was a Student Assistance Coordinator for the school district, taking on a leadership role in guiding the district to implement comprehensive suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention response.

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Youth suicide is not just a school problem, it’s a community problem. Unfortunately, all too often the community turns to a school district and asks what they are doing to prevent youth suicide. The answer is building a strong foundation with an evidence-based policy that doesn’t live on a shelf getting dusty. In this breakout session, Katie Ellison will walk participants through examples of evidence-based policies, procedures, interventions, and programs that can be implemented both in the school and the community to build suicide-resistant schools.

"The truth is that suicidal people only really give up on suicide when the purpose and value of suicide in their lives is made obsolete; not because we have told them they cannot have it."

Dr. David Jobes on managing suicidal risk

Disclaimer

This website is not monitored 24/7 and I am not a licensed professional. If you or someone you care for is having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please reach out to the

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988

988- Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Contact Me

Questions or Comments?

For more information on fees and availability, send me a message. Tell me about your event, and I will get back to you soon with more information.

Sem;colon Consulting w/Katie Ellison, MA, MS, NCC

Saint Charles, Missouri, United States

If you are feeling suicidal, please reach out to help: Suicide & Crisis Lifeline dial 988 (call, text, or chat) Crisis Text Line 741-741 Veteran Crisis Line Dial 988 then press 1 Trevor Project 1-866-488-7386 NSPL TTY 1-800-799-4889

Preventing suicide through education, policy, and storytelling

About Katie

Survivor

Workshops and Keynotes

Webcasts

Media

A Philosophy for the Future

Presentations

Keynote - 1 - hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Suicide Lifeguard - 3 hour workshop

Suicide Lifeguard - 3 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Suicide Lifeguard - 3 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Improving professional's suicide assessment skills and safety planning with suicidal individuals - 1 hour workshop

Mental Health First Aid - 6.5 hour workshop

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Youth Mental Health First Aid - 4.5 hour workshop

Youth Mental Health First Aid - 4.5 hour workshop

Conversations for Suicide Safer Homes - 1 hour workshop

Youth Mental Health First Aid - 4.5 hour workshop

Working Minds: Suicide Prevention in the Workplace - 2 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools I: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools I: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools I: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

Building Suicide Resistant Schools II: Building Resiliency from Tragedy - 1 hour workshop

"The truth is that suicidal people only really give up on suicide when the purpose and value of suicide in their lives is made obsolete; not because we have told them they cannot have it."

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Questions or Comments?

Sem;colon Consulting w/Katie Ellison, MA, MS, NCC

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