UVU Conference on Suicide Prevention

Kathie Supiano, Ph.D., LCSW, F-GSA, FT, APHSW-C is an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing, and the director of Caring Connections:  A Hope and Comfort in Grief Program at the University of Utah College of Nursing.  She teaches Interdisciplinary Approaches to Palliative Care for graduate students in Pharmacy, Social Work and Nursing, and Geriatric Care Management.  Dr. Supiano’s research is in clinical interventions in complicated grief, prevention of adverse grief outcomes, suicide survivorship, overdose grief, and prison hospice. She has been a practicing clinical social worker and psychotherapist for over 35 years.  Her clinical practice has included the care of older adults with depression and multiple chronic health concerns,  end-of-life care, and bereavement care. Dr. Supiano is a Fellow in the Gerontological Society of America, and a  Fellow of Thanatology. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network, the Board of Directors of Advanced Palliative Hospice Social Worker Certification Board, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life and Palliative Care. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work at the University of Utah as a John A. Hartford Foundation Doctoral Fellow.

John (Jack) Jordan is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he has specialized in work with survivors of suicide and other traumatic losses for more than 40 years. Jack is currently semi-retired, but in the past he has maintained a clinical practice as a grief therapist, working primarily with suicide loss survivors. He has also served as the Clinical Consultant for the Grief Support Services of the Samaritans in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Professional Advisor to the Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). He also served as the Co-Chair of the Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. In 2015, this taskforce released postvention guidelines for the United States, titled Responding to Grief, Trauma, and Distress After Suicide: U.S. National Guidelines.