What are Questions & Updates?
SafeSide provides two types of live learning sessions with SafeSide faculty and peers to promote cross-sector learning and continuous improvement:
- Questions & Updates: Monthly 30-minute sessions are an opportunity to share your experiences, connect, and discuss suicide prevention challenges with SafeSide experts and professionals in the field. (Previously named Office Hours.)
- In Focus: quarterly, one-hour expert-led sessions that take a deeper look at complex or frequently raised themes identified through participant questions (e.g. suicide in children).
Is Questions & Updates the same as Office Hours?
Yes. Office Hours has been renamed Questions & Updates. The session format and content haven’t changed — only the name. The updated name makes it clearer what you’ll get from the session.
What will I get out of these sessions?
Questions & Updates and In Focus will help you build upon your experiences participating in the SafeSide video-guided learning and strengthen your use of the framework. When you participate, in addition to getting updates and asking questions of Dr. Tony Pisani, the SafeSide team and our invited expert speakers you will:
- Be better equipped to apply the framework day-to-day as suicide concerns arise, whether you work in a direct or supervisory capacity.
- Hear about questions or situations you may not have thought of, but that can enhance your work.
- Get research highlights in suicide prevention and discussion of how new findings mesh with the framework.
- Be more aware of pitfalls in suicide prevention, and how to avoid them.
And you’ll be connected with other people around the world doing the same work.
Who attends?
People with a variety of roles in SafeSide member organizations attend. There is usually a mix of frontline staff and clinical/administrative leaders. Questions involving how to apply the SafeSide Framework in specific situations are given priority.
When are the sessions, and how do I get invited?
We hold two sessions per month, scheduled to accommodate different time zones. Questions & Updates are held monthly, with at least three in Focus sessions per year,
If you are part of an organization that works with SafeSide you'll receive email notices each month with an RSVP link. The schedule is also posted in the events section (must be logged in to view) of the Community of Practice. In that section, you'll also find summaries and resources from past sessions.
If you're not receiving notices or can't log into your account, contact us and we'll verify our information to be sure you start receiving the invitations.
Do I have to be on video?
We recommend joining via video rather than call-in alone because in almost every session we use screen sharing to highlight resources or connect what we’re discussing to a specific part of the framework. It also helps us get to know each other better. But yes, you can opt to just call in and still have a great experience.
I have a topic or a question, but I’m not comfortable asking them directly during the meeting. Can I bring them up another way?
Of course! Contact us with your topic or question and we'll bring it up for you. We’re all learning together, so if you have a question you’re wondering about, there are probably others that are wondering the same thing.
Do you record these sessions?
Yes. We release excerpts of Questions & Updates to share rich conversations with those who couldn't attend.
We release the full recording of In Focus after each session.
If you want to join without being recorded, don't enable your camera. We also always have the chat function enabled, so you can ask questions and interact without speaking.
I don't have much experience with Zoom. Where can I learn more?
Human Scale Business made our favorite one-pager on how to Zoom like a champ. Note: we don't know the folks at Human Scale or their work, so we can only endorse the awesome page they made.
These tutorials are helpful too: Join a Meeting & Joining & Configuring Audio and Video