The overall goal of instruction in the POST Course Assessing the Suicidal Caller is to provide the student with proper techniques to employ when handling a call involving a suicidal subject.

1. knowledge about the statistics and impact of suicide and depression in the US and the world.

2. an understanding of the different types of suicidal callers a dispatcher may face and the primary causes of suicide in those classes of callers.

3. an understanding of active listening and the ability to apply fundamental techniques of active listening to suicidal callers.

4. knowledge and awareness of the key concepts and techniques of dealing with suicidal callers that include things to say and landmines to avoid.

5. the ability to understand and respond to officer safety issues when handling a suicidal subject call.

6. the knowledge of resources available to locate a suicidal caller whose location is not initially known.

7. an awareness of the multitude of competing tasks that face a dispatcher during a suicidal caller incident and how to respond to those.

8. knowledge of the issue of emotions and stress during and after a suicidal caller incident and the techniques and resources that help to deal with that stress.