ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Please join us for this second webinar of the ICRC-S 2018-19 webinar series, Preventing Suicide by Promoting Social Connectedness: Promoting Connectedness for Youth through Social Networks and Sources of Strength. Sources of Strength is a universal suicide prevention program that builds protective factors and reduces the risk of suicide for vulnerable youth through a strengths-based focus on social connectedness and peer group norms. In this webinar, Dr. Peter Wyman, PhD, from the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester, will review research on the influence of school-based social networks to adolescent risk and protective factors for suicidal behaviors, discuss adolescent exposure to risk factors for suicide, and discuss how school-based social networks can be used to promote social connectedness and address adolescent relational needs. Dr. Wyman will also review research findings regarding the Sources of Strength impact on and through school based networks. Scott LoMurray, Deputy Director, from Sources of Strength, will provide an overview of Sources of Strength as an evidence-based universal upstream intervention, review how diverse peer leaders and trusted adults use social connectedness as a protective factor to transform behavior and social norms at a school-wide level, and examine how the shared risk and protective factor framework and interventions like that of Sources of Strength can impact a variety of negative behaviors and outcomes. Presenters will briefly review replication of Sources of Strength with populations such as LGBTQ and Tribal youth, to promote social connectedness and positive group norms. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions of the presenters.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Peter A. Wyman, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Dr. Wyman has been funded by NIMH and Department of Defense (DoD) to test community interventions aimed at preventing mental health problems including suicide using a network health diffusion approach. He has led randomized controlled trials testing the Sources of Strength program with over 20,000 adolescents and directs the DoD-funded Wingman-Connect suicide prevention project for the US Air Force. Dr. Wyman was an expert panelist for the NIMH- Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention in 2013 and for the NIH Pathways to Preventing Youth Suicide (P2P) project in 2015-2016, and participated in the Air Force Suicide Prevention Summit in 2015. Dr. Wyman is Co-Chair of the Governor’s Suicide Prevention Task Force for New York State (2017 – current). In 2012, Dr. Wyman received the Excellence in Suicide Prevention Award from New York State. Dr. Wyman received his Doctorate in Psychology from University of Rochester and completed a fellowship in psychology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Scott LoMurray is the Deputy Director of the evidence-based upstream prevention program Sources of Strength (Sources). Mr. LoMurray has helped develop Sources into one of the most rigorously evaluated and widely disseminated best practice prevention programs in the country. Mr. LoMurray has partnered on research initiatives with the University of Rochester on the National Institute of Mental Health Funded National Peer Leadership Study, with Stanford University researching prevention impacts in communities that have experienced suicide contagion, and most recently with the Centers for Disease Control and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on the effect of a shared risk and protective factor approach on sexual violence outcomes. He is a foster parent, a frequent trainer, speaker, and upstream prevention evangelist. He lives in Lakewood, CO with his wonderful wife, and three exceedingly adorable children. Scott received a BA in Communications and Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado and an MBA in Social Enterprise from Colorado State University.