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Approaches
Strategy
Program Strategy or Approach to Suicide Prevention
The strategies compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices are defined as follows:
- Promote connectedness (e.g., peer norm programs, community engagement activities)
- Teach coping and problem-solving skills (e.g., social-emotional learning programs, parenting skill and family relationship programs)
- Identify and support people at risk (e.g., gatekeeper training, crisis intervention, treatment for people at risk of suicide, treatment to prevent re-attempts)
- Strengthen access and delivery of suicide are (e.g., coverage of mental health conditions in health insurance policies, reduction of provider shortages in underserved areas, safer suicide care through systems change)
- Lessen harms and prevent future risk (e.g., postvention, safe reporting and messaging about suicide)
- Create protective environments (e.g., reduce access to lethal means among persons at risk of suicide, improve organizational policies and culture, create community-based policies to reduce excessive alcohol use)
- Strengthen economic supports (e.g., household financial security, housing stabilization policies)
Topics
Topics
SPRC’s Comprehensive Approach to Suicide Prevention, the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Implement the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, and the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model, here are additional descriptions of the categories the program or intervention aims to impact:
Reduce risk factors (including upstream factors) including factors such as: thoughts of suicide; prior suicide attempts; knowing someone who died by suicide, particularly a family member; chronic diseases; mental disorders (depression, mood disorders); disability; access to lethal means; alcohol
use, illicit drug use; poverty; social isolation; stress resulting from prejudice or discrimination; stress resulting from attitudes towards gender and sexual identify, trauma or Historical trauma; loss of identity, sense of belonging, or connections with community; adverse childhood experiences (ACES); neighborhood violence; disruption in medical care, loss of coverage, or cessation of medication use
Promote protective factors (including upstream factors) including factors such as: coping and problem-solving skills; health education; screening and support for those at risk for suicide; cultural identity, connections, and community; family engagement; economic stability; stable housing policies; physical education and opportunities for physical activity; wellness (nutritional, environmental, workplace, social and emotional climate); safe and secure physical environment
Improve community factors including factors such as: stigma reduction; connectedness; protective environment; positive expectations; policies and practices to reduce bullying; support for learning; positive social norms; supportive relationships; opportunities for skill building
Improve suicide care (postvention) is care and support to individuals affected by suicide deaths and attempts to promote healing and implement community strategies to help prevent further suicides. Postvention efforts also include interventions after a suicide, often consisting of support for survivors of suicide loss who may also be at risk, with the intention of preventing contagion (suicide risk associated with the knowledge of another person’s suicidal behavior, either firsthand or through the media). Materials that provide guidance on how institutions should respond in the immediate aftermath of suicide. Materials about addressing the long-term needs of those bereaved by suicide.
Improve health care system quality including efforts such as: suicide prevention promotion as a core component of health care services; therapeutic or psychological counseling, faith-based care, and other needed psychological and social services; access to effective mental health treatments or interventions intended to address an individual or population’s suicide risk, risk factors for suicide, or suicide attempt; access and delivery of quality suicide care; provider response to crisis and improved patient care transition; effective transitions in care to help reduce suicide risk among individuals receiving health or behavioral health services. One example would be a person with suicide risk who connects with outpatient mental health services following an emergency department visit.
Improve communication about suicide including research-informed communication efforts designed to prevent suicide by changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; responsible media reporting of suicide; accurate portrayals of suicide and mental illnesses in the entertainment industry; and the safety of online content related to suicide
Improve provider (e.g., physicians, mental health professionals) attitudes, knowledge, and skills about suicide including: community and clinical service provider trainings on the prevention of suicide and related behaviors; stigma reduction strategies; effective clinical and professional practices for assessing and treating those identified as being at risk for suicidal behaviors.
Prevention Level
Institute of Medicine Continuum of Care
For more information about the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Continuum of Care, please visit: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25201/chapter/3#21
Evidence Type
Outcomes of Efectiveness
Community-defined evidence is a set of practices that yield positive results and have reached a level of acceptance by the community. A community could be a workplace, neighborhood, school, or could be geographically or culturally defined.
Empirically defined evidence is generated from observation, experience, or the scientific method. A researcher develops a hypothesis and conducts an experiment to test it. The findings may or may not support the hypothesis.
Type
Program Type
An Education or Training Program or Intervention is intended to communicate increased knowledge, awareness, attitudes, or skills to reduce suicides.
A Screening Program or intervention uses a standardized tool to identify individuals at risk for suicide with other programmatic activities.
An Information or Outreach program or intervention can show, through informative efforts and outreach activity, evidence of specifically changed behavior.
Treatment or Direct Services Program or intervention include services for those with suicidal ideation, suicidal thoughts or behaviors, lived experience, or in bereavement.
An Environment or Systems Program or intervention focuses on changing the environment rather than individual behavior.
People
Ages
Intended Age Group
Age group of who this program or intervention is intended to help
Race or Ethnicity
Places
Languages
Delivery Options
Implementer
Program Can Be Delivered By
If selected, this type of person can deliver this program or intervention and was consulted in the development of the program or intervention.
Credentials Needed
Cost
Approaches
Strategy
Program Strategy or Approach to Suicide Prevention
The strategies compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices are defined as follows:
- Promote connectedness (e.g., peer norm programs, community engagement activities)
- Teach coping and problem-solving skills (e.g., social-emotional learning programs, parenting skill and family relationship programs)
- Identify and support people at risk (e.g., gatekeeper training, crisis intervention, treatment for people at risk of suicide, treatment to prevent re-attempts)
- Strengthen access and delivery of suicide are (e.g., coverage of mental health conditions in health insurance policies, reduction of provider shortages in underserved areas, safer suicide care through systems change)
- Lessen harms and prevent future risk (e.g., postvention, safe reporting and messaging about suicide)
- Create protective environments (e.g., reduce access to lethal means among persons at risk of suicide, improve organizational policies and culture, create community-based policies to reduce excessive alcohol use)
- Strengthen economic supports (e.g., household financial security, housing stabilization policies)
Type
Program Type
An Education or Training Program or Intervention is intended to communicate increased knowledge, awareness, attitudes, or skills to reduce suicides.
A Screening Program or intervention uses a standardized tool to identify individuals at risk for suicide with other programmatic activities.
An Information or Outreach program or intervention can show, through informative efforts and outreach activity, evidence of specifically changed behavior.
Treatment or Direct Services Program or intervention include services for those with suicidal ideation, suicidal thoughts or behaviors, lived experience, or in bereavement.
An Environment or Systems Program or intervention focuses on changing the environment rather than individual behavior.
Places
Delivery Options
Ages
Intended Age Group
Age group of who this program or intervention is intended to help
Race or Ethnicity
People
Languages
Topics
Topics
SPRC’s Comprehensive Approach to Suicide Prevention, the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Implement the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, and the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model, here are additional descriptions of the categories the program or intervention aims to impact:
Reduce risk factors (including upstream factors) including factors such as: thoughts of suicide; prior suicide attempts; knowing someone who died by suicide, particularly a family member; chronic diseases; mental disorders (depression, mood disorders); disability; access to lethal means; alcohol
use, illicit drug use; poverty; social isolation; stress resulting from prejudice or discrimination; stress resulting from attitudes towards gender and sexual identify, trauma or Historical trauma; loss of identity, sense of belonging, or connections with community; adverse childhood experiences (ACES); neighborhood violence; disruption in medical care, loss of coverage, or cessation of medication use
Promote protective factors (including upstream factors) including factors such as: coping and problem-solving skills; health education; screening and support for those at risk for suicide; cultural identity, connections, and community; family engagement; economic stability; stable housing policies; physical education and opportunities for physical activity; wellness (nutritional, environmental, workplace, social and emotional climate); safe and secure physical environment
Improve community factors including factors such as: stigma reduction; connectedness; protective environment; positive expectations; policies and practices to reduce bullying; support for learning; positive social norms; supportive relationships; opportunities for skill building
Improve suicide care (postvention) is care and support to individuals affected by suicide deaths and attempts to promote healing and implement community strategies to help prevent further suicides. Postvention efforts also include interventions after a suicide, often consisting of support for survivors of suicide loss who may also be at risk, with the intention of preventing contagion (suicide risk associated with the knowledge of another person’s suicidal behavior, either firsthand or through the media). Materials that provide guidance on how institutions should respond in the immediate aftermath of suicide. Materials about addressing the long-term needs of those bereaved by suicide.
Improve health care system quality including efforts such as: suicide prevention promotion as a core component of health care services; therapeutic or psychological counseling, faith-based care, and other needed psychological and social services; access to effective mental health treatments or interventions intended to address an individual or population’s suicide risk, risk factors for suicide, or suicide attempt; access and delivery of quality suicide care; provider response to crisis and improved patient care transition; effective transitions in care to help reduce suicide risk among individuals receiving health or behavioral health services. One example would be a person with suicide risk who connects with outpatient mental health services following an emergency department visit.
Improve communication about suicide including research-informed communication efforts designed to prevent suicide by changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; responsible media reporting of suicide; accurate portrayals of suicide and mental illnesses in the entertainment industry; and the safety of online content related to suicide
Improve provider (e.g., physicians, mental health professionals) attitudes, knowledge, and skills about suicide including: community and clinical service provider trainings on the prevention of suicide and related behaviors; stigma reduction strategies; effective clinical and professional practices for assessing and treating those identified as being at risk for suicidal behaviors.
Prevention Level
Institute of Medicine Continuum of Care
For more information about the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Continuum of Care, please visit: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25201/chapter/3#21
Evidence Type
Outcomes of Efectiveness
Community-defined evidence is a set of practices that yield positive results and have reached a level of acceptance by the community. A community could be a workplace, neighborhood, school, or could be geographically or culturally defined.
Empirically defined evidence is generated from observation, experience, or the scientific method. A researcher develops a hypothesis and conducts an experiment to test it. The findings may or may not support the hypothesis.
Implementer
Program Can Be Delivered By
If selected, this type of person can deliver this program or intervention and was consulted in the development of the program or intervention.
Credentials Needed
Cost
The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)
The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) is one of a handful of evidence-based, suicide-focused treatments referenced by the Joint Commission, the Surgeon General, Zero Suicide and the CDC. CAMS is backed by over 30 years of clinical research including 6 published Randomized Controlled Trials and two meta-analysis that show CAMS is a “Well…