Description:
This workshop introduces strategies for integrating micro, mezzo, and macro systems to support advocacy with vulnerable populations in suicide prevention efforts. Through accessible examples and interactive discussion, students and community members will explore how individual support, community engagement, and broader policy and systems change intersect to reduce risk. Participants will leave with a practical understanding of multi‑level prevention strategies and how they can contribute to meaningful, community‑driven solutions.
Trainer: Sonyia Richardson, Ph.D., LCSW is an Assistant Professor at the UNC School of Social Work and holds an appointment in the UNC Department of Psychiatry. Her work centers on suicide prevention among Black youth and developing culturally inclusive interventions to make life worth living. She focuses on addressing the practical, systemic, and cultural barriers that limit access to care, and leads CA-LINC, an NIMH-funded clinical trial co-designed with Black communities to strengthen connections to mental health support. She also directs the Black Wellness Collective Lab. Before joining UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Richardson was a faculty member at UNC Charlotte, where she founded and directed the Mental Health Research and Practice Lab and led the Race and Social Equity Research Academy. She is the founder of Another Level Counseling and Consultation, a Charlotte-based agency that has provided clinical services, wellness programming, and consultation for more than 16 years. Dr. Richardson was appointed to North Carolina’s Andrea Harris Equity Task Force by Governor Roy Cooper and serves as Director of its Wellness Outcomes subcommittee. In 2021, she was named Social Worker of the Year by the North Carolina chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the training participants will be able to:
1. Identify at least one micro-, mezzo-, and macro-level strategy used in suicide prevention.
2. Differentiate how micro, mezzo, and macro interventions influence risk and protective factors in a case example.
3. Develop a brief action plan applying at least one strategy at each level.
References:
- Richardson, S. C., Gunn, L. H., Phipps, M., & Azasu, E. (2024). Factors associated with suicide risk behavior outcomes among Black high school adolescents. Journal of Community Health, 49(3), 466–474. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-023-01312-7
- Richardson, S. C., Hales, T., Meehan, E., & Waters, A. (2022). Sexual minorities and teen suicide attempts in a southeastern state with prominent exclusionary policies. Death Studies, 46, 495–500.
- Richardson, S. C., & Gunn, L. H. (2024). Factors associated with suicide risk behavior outcomes among Black middle school adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 63(12), 1215–1224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2024.03.019
- Richardson, S. C., Williams, J. A., Vance, M. M., Phipps-Bennett, M., Stevenson, A. P., & Herbert, R. (2024). Informing equitable prevention practices: A statewide disaggregated analysis of suicide for ethnoracially minoritized adolescents. Prevention Science, 25(3), 532–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-024-01654-1
- Vance, M. M., Gryglewicz, K., Nam, E., Richardson, S., Borntrager, L., & Karver, M. S. (2023). Exploring service use disparities among suicidal Black youth in a suicide prevention care coordination intervention. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 10(5), 2231–2243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01402-7
UNC SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK MACRO LECTURE SERIES