Preparing psychology trainees to assess and to manage clients who are suicidal is a critical responsibility of graduate training programs. In this study, doctoral trainees in clinical psychology (N = 59) were surveyed on their exposure to training and supervision on suicide assessment, their exposure to bereavement by suicide, and their confidence in providing care to suicidal clients. The Suicide Intervention Response Inventory–Revised (SIRI-2) was utilized to assess participants’ suicide intervention skills. Results indicated that over 75% of trainees had received education on suicide during graduate school; however, few students reported receiving clinical supervision on this topic. Trainees with and without formal training scored similarly on the SIRI-2, though there was a trend toward more skillful responding among trainees with more clinical experience. Exposure to suicidal clients during clinical training was common, as was personal bereavement by suicide. Trainees who reported working with clients who endorsed suicidal ideation and/or a history of suicide attempts performed better on the SIRI-2 than students with no such experience. Although a higher proportion of graduate trainees endorsed education on suicide assessment and management than in past studies, these findings call into question the efficacy of current training curricula. Implications for training and supervision are discussed.

FIGURE 1. Cultural stereotypes are used to infer information about an individual based on how they are categorized. Prejudices and biases derived from the applied stereotype may result in predictable changes in behavior (i.e., discrimination). The stereotype content model systematizes stereotypes along the social judgment dimensions of warmth and competence. 1-5 The dimension of warmth rates intentions (benevolent, malevolent) and provides a basis for inferring whether someone will be a friend or enemy. The dimension of competence rates the ability to enact intentions (capable, ineffectual) and correlates very highly with status across cultures. The two dimensions separate groups into four clusters, each associated with a particular combination of expectations and emotional biases. These, in turn, can influence behaviors, including delivery of clinical care. 4 Groups stereotyped as high on warmth but low on competence, such as individuals with intellectual disabilities, may be institutionalized unnecessarily. Groups stereotyped as low on both dimensions, such as homeless individuals, are more likely to receive a lower level of care in general. A study assessing where groups with mental illnesses fell within this framework reported that when evaluated as a category, people with mental illnesses were rated very much like poor people, somewhat low on both warmth and competence. 5 When specific mental illnesses were rated, the categories of anxiety or eating disorders were rated as relatively more competent and warm than the serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or sociopathy. 5