CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. The Nature and Scope of Suicide
2. Recognizing the Progressive Development of Suicide
3. Substance Abuse as a Major Contributor to Suicide
4. Suicide Across the Life Span
5. Special Populations and Suicide Risk
6. Prevention and Early Intervention for Suicide and Substance Abuse Problems

Supplements
References
Resources

Holding the Lifeline
A Guide to Suicide Prevention

National Strategy Goals

The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention is a Federal collaborative effort that brought together many of the best and brightest minds to focus on suicide prevention in the United States. Researchers, suicide survivors, government officials, nonprofit organizations, and advocacy groups, came together to produce a comprehensive document that provides direction and clarity for suicide prevention.

The Goals of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention range from promoting awareness that suicide is preventable to improving access to mental health services and reducing the stigma of mental illness and substance abuse. This course is designed to help advance the goals of the National Strategy, including those of increasing awareness of suicide and decreasing the stigma of mental illness. To reduce the toll from suicide, experts identified Key Elements of a Planned National Strategy.

The Federal Steering Committee that helped develop the National Strategy and is overseeing its implementation includes representatives from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). SAMHSA is acting as a link between the Federal efforts, States, and local communities.

SAMHSA is supporting the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) and a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK). Calls made to the 1-800-273-8255 are automatically routed to the nearest suicide hotline at the local level. SPRC features an online registry of Evidence-based Practices in Suicide Prevention Programs. SPRC offers technical assistance and resources to states and communities to promote the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP).

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a systematic process for addressing suicide as a public health problem. CDC Activities highlight steps the CDC is taking to define the problem, identify risk and protective factors, develop and test prevention strategies, and assure widespread adoption of prevention principles and strategies.

A number of these resources and programs are described in more detail throughout this course.

In addition to the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which reviewed the mental health service delivery system in order to make recommendations related to improved access to services for people with disabilities, released a groundbreaking report calling for "a fundamental transformation of the Nation's approach to mental health care." ref

The commission recommended a national campaign to (1) reduce the stigma of seeking care and (2) improve efforts to address mental health "with the same urgency as physical health."