7:30 – 8:15 Breakfast and Networking
8:15 - 10:15: “Red Flag Laws and Clinicians in Colorado” - Chris Knoepke, PhD, MSW, LCSW, Assistant Professor, UC School of Medicine
10:30 - 12:30: “CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means” - Jordan Merrill, MHL, Community Health Program Manager, Intermountain Health
RSVP Required by Thursday, April 4th
Link to Zoom Meeting for virtual attendees: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/162331194
Part 1 - Red Flag Laws and Clinicians in Colorado
Extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs) are a risk-based legal tool designed to help prevent firearm violence. ERPOs (also colloquially referred to as "red flag laws”) are civil restraining orders that allow certain groups of individuals (“Petitioners”) to formally request a judge to temporarily prohibit specific individuals (“Respondents”) from purchasing or otherwise possessing firearms, so long as the judge agrees that the Respondent is contemporaneously at extreme risk of firearm violence. As of June 2023, ERPO-type laws had been implemented in 21 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to being a promising suicide prevention tool, ERPOs have been used in hundreds of cases of threatened mass shootings, including both public mass shooting threats (directed at schools, workplaces, healthcare facilities, etc.) and private threats directed toward specific individuals (most commonly Respondents’ family members and romantic partners.) By focusing firearms access restrictions to individuals demonstrating high risk of violence, ERPOs seek to reduce the collective impact of violence without burdening firearm owners who do not pose such a risk. While seemingly politically divisive, ERPOs enjoy high levels of support across the general population. This popularity has led policymakers in several states – notably including Colorado and New York – to expand the list of legal Petitioners to include healthcare and behavioral health professionals. The legislative intent of such expansion is to provide a mechanism by which a professional could “disarm” an at-risk individual who the professional has treated. In this presentation, we will explore the promise and implementation of ERPOs nationwide, coupled with a nuanced discussion of how ERPOs can be used in EAP or similar settings.
Learning Objectives Part 1
1) describe the history of extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs or Red Flag Laws) in Colorado and other states,
2) situate ERPOs within other clinical methods to prevent gun violence,
3) navigate the systems necessary to file for an ERPO if they chose to do so
Part 2 - CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means
Conversations about suicide can be uncomfortable. When the stakes are high, effectively engaging with a patient to encourage safety can be difficult. Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) will teach how to ask a suicidal client or patient about their access to lethal means, while working with the patient and families to reduce their access. CALM provides education on how to effectively communicate about means reduction in a supportive and engaging method. This allows the patient and family to engage in personal problem-solving and set acceptable goals to reduce access to lethal means while in a crisis. CALM gives the provider concrete tools and sample language to support this process and follow up care.
Learning Objectives Part 2
1. Explain why reducing access to highly lethal suicide methods, especially firearms, can prevent suicide deaths and is part of a comprehensive suicide prevention strategy.
2. Communicate more effectively with suicidal and at-risk patients and their families about reducing access to firearms and dangerous medications and understand the range of off-site and in-home storage options.
3. Feel confident that preventing suicide is an area on which providers, families, and gun owner groups find common ground.
4 PDH’s - Domain TBD
Chris E. Knoepke, PhD, MSW, LCSW, FACC
Chris Knoepke is an Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he also serves on the Leadership Committee for the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative. His research spans patient centered care in advanced cardiology and firearm injury and suicide prevention, including extreme risk protection orders and voluntary storage programs. He has current and past research funding from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, Fund for a Safer Future, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Justice, the National Collaborative for Gun Violence Research, and others. More importantly, he is a proud “EAP guy”, having been an active member of the Rocky Mountain EAPA chapter since 2010 and served as both Chapter President and At-Large Member of the International EAPA Board of Directors.
CONTACT:
Chris E. Knoepke, PhD, MSW, LCSW, FACC
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
Leadership Committee, Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative
University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus
Phone: 303.724.9938
Email: christopher.knoepke@cuanschutz.edu
Jordan Merrill, MHL
Jordan Merrill, Community Health Program Manager at Intermountain Health serving Southwest Utah and Nevada. Jordan has worked in the community health field for over a decade. He earned his Bachelor of Physical Education and Exercise Science and then went on to obtain a Master of Health Leadership. He has served on state and local boards and coalitions including serving currently as President for the Utah Chapter of the Society for Public Health Education. Jordan also serves on the Utah Suicide Prevention Coalition Faith workgroup and local suicide prevention coalition Reach4Hope.
CONTACT:
Jordan Merrill, MHL
Community Health Program Manager
Intermountain Health, Desert Region
Phone: 435.251.3234
Cell: 435.231.5027
Email: Jordan.Merrill@imail.org