Two New Grants Received for Suicide Prevention Content Assessment and Public Health Social Work Training Institute

Clinical Associate Professor Betty J. Ruth has been awarded a $10,000 Suicide Prevention Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for an organizational audit of suicide prevention/intervention content and related issues in the larger BUSSW learning community. Professor Ruth will examine course content, continuing education, faculty/student/fields supervisor attitudes, knowledge, skills and capacities related to suicide prevention/intervention throughout BUSSW’s system, and generate an implementation grant proposal to improve the School’s work in this area. This is preparatory to a second competitive grant process when she hopes to obtain funding for innovative training projects developed during this planning/assessment grant.

As follow up to the May 2006 National Conference of Public Health Social Work that she organized and coordinated with members of the Group for Public Health Social Work Initiatives, Professor Ruth also has received a grant of $7,000 to launch a Public Health Social Work Training Institute in conjunction with the School’s Professional Education Programs. Featuring the work scholars and researchers who presented at last year’s conference, this effort will focus on translating research into practice in public health social work and developing a small MPH certificate program for social workers already in the field who are seeking public health and prevention skills. This will be the first such post-master’s program in the country and will be delivered entirely by MSW/MPH practitioners/researchers. Funding for the Institute is being provided by an alumna of the School.

For more information on these projects, please contact Professor Ruth at bjruth@bu.edu