Classroom Presentations

A classroom presentation by the school social worker is an effective way to increase awareness of school social work and a very visible way to showcase the school social worker’s unique and valuable skills. In addition to providing students with helpful information, the school social worker who delivers that information effectively will likely be more completely valued by students. With an adolescent audience, the school social worker’s particular professional “use of self” is perhaps more critical than the information provided. Students’ first impression of the school social worker—that encourages them to want to seek help for themselves and/or their friends—is formed by their observations of how the school social worker behaves and interacts with everyone in the class. Help-seeking behavior seems more apt to be activated if students can imagine, with a level of hope, that they can be helped; have the freedom and permission to easily and privately access that help; and have a basic trust in the person who seems capable of helping.

Suicide Prevention

Jerry Ciffone developed an evidence-based school-wide depression awareness and suicide prevention program in 1987. Suicide prevention became a such a passion for Jerry that he maintained this program each and every year until he retired in 2014. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention this 27-year period was, and perhaps remains, the longest continuously provided Tier One suicide awareness and prevention program in the entire United States. There are different measures of prevention program effectiveness however, the most valid measurement is the extent to which there are, or are not, suicides where a prevention program is offered. From 1987 through 2014 over 17,000 students received Jerry's prevention message in their Health class.

The following nine core components of the suicide prevention program were:

  • freshman orientation presentations by an on-site school social worker with all 9th-grade students (to reduce access barriers and stimulate self/peer referrals to the same school social worker)

  • easy access to the school social worker, on-site from September through June, (for assessment, intervention, and referral)

  • structured classroom discussions (on mental health, mental illness, and suicide) to all 10th-grade students in health class

  • prevention information materials (for distribution to all 10th-grade students)

  • follow-up screening mechanism (post classroom presentations in-class “quiz”) for pro-suicide attitudes

  • intervention with at-risk students

  • a survey given to newly enrolled students that allows for a potential interview with the school social worker

  • postvention protocols (to be used following any student death)

  • formal and informal evaluations of prevention message effectiveness.

Research on program effectiveness:

  • The first published assessment of Jerry’s program was conducted in 1989 and published in 1993 in the journal Social Work.

  • The second study was conducted in 2003 and can be viewed in the January 2007 issue of the journal Social Work.

  • A third (unpublished) study was conducted in 2005 to compare the incidence of suicidal ideation and attempts during the past 12 months between students who participated in the two-day presentation of the program and those who did not.

  • A fourth (unpublished) study of the effectiveness of the prevention program was conducted in 2009.  

  • Among the various publications that reference Jerry’s prevention program there is one in 2023 that appropriately noted the emphasis of his program.

School social workers and other interested individuals wishing to develop an awareness and prevention program at their school may contact Jerry to receive free and readily available information (PowerPoint slides and the transcripts of the two-day presentation) which he used in his prevention program.    

Jerry is credentialed through the Illinois State Board of Education to work in a school setting and is available to provide presentations to high school classrooms on the topic of depression and teen suicide. His presentation and discussion with students currently includes the movie More Than Sad. Information about this movie can be obtained by going to: http://www.morethansad.org/

Freshman Orientation to Social Work Services

As noted above, a very important component of the suicide prevention program was an orientation message given to all freshman students about school social work services and how they could access such services for themselves or a friend. Jerry named the program Freshman Orientation to School Social Work (FOSSW). Visitors to this website who are interested in learning more about the FOSSW Program may view a more detailed description of the Program by clicking on the FOSSW Information link at the top.

Presentations to other classes

On several occasions Jerry was invited in to speak to Psychology classes at South Elgin High School. In preparing for the classroom presentation the teacher would forward questions her students had about school social work, mental health and mental-illness. It may be helpful for other school social workers to see the types of questions high school students had for Jerry so that a presentation they may be developing on the same subject can be pertinent and interesting to the students in their building.  

Updated: 9/30/2023