The American Association of Suicidology (AAS), the nation’s largest and oldest suicide prevention membership organization, strongly opposes the U.S. Department of Education’s proposal to remove nursing, social work, and counseling degrees from the list of federally recognized professional degrees. These professions are the bedrock of suicide prevention and behavioral health services. At a time of severe workforce shortages and rising suicide rates, increasing barriers to entry for these fields would significantly weaken states’ ability to meet the mental health needs of their communities. 

AAS is committed to ensuring that the science of suicidology directly informs cultural, population‑specific prevention. For nearly six decades, we have advanced suicide prevention through professional training, credentialing, research dissemination, and the publication of a leading peer‑reviewed journal. We pioneered the accreditation of crisis call centers and developed the psychological autopsy model now used nationwide to better understand the complex factors contributing to suicide deaths. 

Through this longstanding work, AAS has a clear understanding that effective suicide prevention relies on a highly trained clinical and community workforce. Professionals with degrees in nursing, social work, and counseling deliver the majority of suicide‑related care, and their work is grounded in rigorous, standardized educational competencies that ensure consistent, high‑quality practice across the country. Our nation’s suicide prevention system cannot function without these core professions. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as one example, is the nation’s largest employer of social workers, with more than 20,000 across 1,300 facilities, and it trains approximately 1,500 social work interns each year. These professionals provide suicide prevention services, crisis intervention, clinical care, and case management that address housing instability, food insecurity, and other critical factors that elevate suicide risk. 

Removing nursing, social work, and counseling degrees from federal professional degree recognition would increase the financial burden on students entering already underpaid fields, reduce enrollment in essential professions, deepen existing workforce shortages, and undermine state and national suicide prevention efforts. 

As a national organization dedicated to preventing suicide, we urge federal and state leaders to reject this proposal from the U.S. Department of Education. The United States needs more, not fewer, highly trained professionals committed to protecting the health and well‑being of our communities.