NASW To Develop National Standards of Care for Suicide Prevention

In Brief

NASW President Yvonne Chase has launched a task force to craft a National Standard of Care for Suicide for Social Workers.

The Centers for Disease Control notes that suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, with more than 49,000 Americans dying by suicide in 2023.

Clinical social workers are one of the largest groups of mental health services providers in the United States and are often at the forefront of helping prevent deaths by suicide. However, there are no standards of care specifically tailored toward members of the social work profession.

“We hope the work of this task force will lead to better training of social workers to address this crisis, and lead to many more lives being saved,” Chase said.

Michelle Scott, PhD, professor at Monmouth University School of Social Work and director of the SRF Suicide Prevention Research and Training Project, will co-lead the task force for NASW with co-chair Maureen Underwood, LCSW, a clinical affiliate faculty member at Monmouth.

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